Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin
by Fenikkusumaru
Summary: A deadly meteor shower has wiped out over 90% of the human population. Arriving in these space rocks, the deadly alien race, the Worms, have come to replace the identities of humanity. Now, an alliance of brave soldiers and civilians must join together to fight the Worms and human monsters as a new kind of hero: Kamen Riders.
1. Chapter 1: Days of Ruin

**Fenikkusumaru: **HELLO FANFIC READERS! I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

**Serpentdragon:** Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Riders, Kaijin, and allies of all ages, please give a warm welcome to our returning champion: Fenikkusumaru!

**Audience:** YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

*Audience stands in ovation and fireworks and confetti go off.*

**SD:** How's that for a welcome back, aibou?

**Fen:** I feel great to be back man. Like the Phoenix, I've risen from the ashes.

**SD:** *Nods* Indeed. It's sure good to have you back for good this time.

**Fen:** Yeah. And to celebrate my return, I'm putting out a whole lot of new stories out on my homepage!

**SD:** Yep! And a bunch on my page as well! In preparation for Fen's return, he and I have begun working a whole bunch of Kamen Rider crossover stories, including two completely original Rider series, for you guys to enjoy, all leading up to one very special event!

**Fen:** That's right! Plus I got a new chapter of GX: Society of Light and the new 5D's sequel too!

**SD:** So, Fen, do you give them a little sneak peak of what we have in store for them?

**Fen:** I sure can! We've got some Kamen Rider crossovers going on. And they are:

Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin (Kamen Rider Kabuto x Advance Wars: Days of Ruin)  
Kamen Rider OOO: Unlimited Adventure (Kamen Rider OOO x One Piece: Unlimited Adventure  
The Wizard of Zero (Kamen Rider Wizard x Familiar of Zero)

**SD:** And as for our original Rider stories, the first we have Kamen Rider Access, a story full of advanced technology, mind–controlling cyborgs, and espionage thrills as Kurogasa becomes a spy and fights the evil Bioroid Dominion and the criminal syndicate NOVA along with the mysterious Kamen Rider Infiltrate and Kamen Rider Secure. Next, in Kamen Rider Funk & Soul, Kurogasa and Koji step into platform shoes as the twin Riders Kamen Rider Funk and Kamen Rider Soul, princes of a groovy kingdom where disco never died as they fight against the monstrous Jiveless who threaten to darken their joyful land!

**Fen:** So now we got Blade, Kabuto, Kiva, W, OOO, Wizard, Duelist, Funk/Soul, and Access… hey… you thinking what I'm thinking?

**SD:** *Grin* you bet I am… Alright, guys, count up how many Rider stories that is right there? Notice anything about that number?

**Fen:** We'll let you ponder for a bit. Anyways, like I said, I got a new chapter of GX: Society of Light and the new 5D's sequel too!

**SD:** *Whispers* If you guys want a hint, look through mine and Fen's stories. There's a clue in one of them… *Wink* …But yes, as you guys can see, we have lots of goodies coming your way!

**Fen:** Now keep in mind people, I also got school going on, so I gotta give attention to that. I don't want to leave the moment I get back.

**SD:** Mhmm… I know what you mean, buddy, finishing up school myself. But don't worry guys, while chapters may not come flying out superfast, we'll keep pushing to give you guys what you want.

**Fen:** Other than that, it's great to be back.

**SD:** Alright, we'll I think that's enough talk for now. So, aibou, what do you say we get this party started, eh?

**Fen:** Let's do this! Here it is! One of my new stories! Or in the case, for my GX story, here's the new chapter!

**SD:** *Takes out Double Driver and Cyclone Memory* Shall we?

**Fen:** *Takes out Double Driver and Joker Memory* We shall.

**CYCLONE!**

**JOKER!**

**Both:** Henshin!

**CYCLONE–JOKER!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Kamen Rider Kabuto. All creative rights go to Shotaro Ishinomori. Any and all music used in this story, don't belong to me either. I also do not own Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. All creative rights got to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems Co., Ltd.

* * *

It happened without warning.

No one knew or saw it coming.

I didn't think that the Apocalypse would come in the form of meteors raining down on Earth.

The land burned, the sea dried, and the sky darkened.

The devastation was total.

Dust covered the entire planet, blotting out all traces of the sun.

We weren't prepared, and most of humanity paid the ultimate price, dying needlessly.

The world as we know it, no longer exists.

My name is Kurogasa Kururugi. I'm 21 years old, having brown hair in a style that one would think I was Kira Yamato from Gundam Seed and have blue eyes. I'm… or rather I _was_ a chef of a diner I used to own. It was a very famous diner and I had lots of customers come in; especially soldiers from the Rubinelle Army. I was just minding my own business cooking… until it happened.

Meteors struck down without warning. Everyone was all in a panic and a lot of explosions took place. The booming noise rang in my ears and I heard the countless screams of people dying. The debris fell all over and I had to somehow protect myself from it. So I hid under the counter, hoping that it would provide me some protection. But it was all in vain as heavier debris crashed down and just like that…

Darkness…

* * *

**(Cue Theme D–Technolife by UVERworld)**

**(Ienai itami kanashimi de kizutsuita kimi yo)** The scenery is a barren wasteland, with a sky that blotted out the sun. The camera pans slowly to the right as Kurogasa, with his back facing the camera, looks at the barren wasteland on top of a cliff.  
**(Kesenai kako mo seoiatteikou ikiru koto o nagedasanai de)** The camera then suddenly changes to a close up of Kurogasa's face before it went around his head, the camera's view being blocked momentarily when it reached the back of his head and when the camera finally circles to the side of his face, it showed Kurogasa as Kamen Rider Kabuto, before panning out showing him in his full armor. Looking up at the sky, a ray of light suddenly burst through the clouds shining on Kabuto before the screen goes white.

**([WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH] tsunaida kimi no te o)** The title Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin appears on the screen and just before the song enters the next phrase, the ZECTers flew, crawled, and hopped around the title from behind and jumped towards the screen before changing to the next scene.

**(Itsuka ushinatte shimau no kana)** Koji sits on the edge of his bed, sadly looking at his guitar on one side, his rifle on the other, as Gatack flew up and lands on his shoulder.  
**(Usurete yuku egao to kimi wo mamoritai kara)** Rika was in the medical wing of the base, sighing and wiping sweat off her brow as she tries to organize her medical supplies, Sasword crawling around on a table while Brenner, Lin, Isabella, and Will were discussing plans for their next move.

**(Hibiku~ boku wo yobu koe sae kare)** Kurogasa was cooking and Kabuto watched on his shoulder before Kurogasa noticed something from afar on the horizon.  
**(Toki ni sou kaze ni kakikesaretatte)** Drake and TheBee fly past him as we see what Kurogasa was looking out: a swarm of Salis Worms flanking Dr. Caulder with Admiral Greyfield, Waylon, showing up one end of the battlefield along with Tasha and Gage on another end and they sending out their troops alerting the 12th Platoon.

**(Kimi wo mitsu–ke–da–su)** Kurogasa grabs Kabuto and transforms into Kamen Rider Kabuto, before casting off his armor and charging towards Dr. Caulder.

**(Ienai itami kanashimi de kizutsuita kimi mou)** Dr. Caulder snaps his fingers and Kamen Rider Punch and Kick Hopper appeared out of nowhere and jumped towards Kabuto for an attack only for the latter to dodge before going to attack them.  
**(Waraenai nante, hito kirai nante kotoba sou iwanaide)** Koji transforms into Kamen Rider Gatack and leads the Tech Platoon with their heavy weapons attacking some of the Salis Worms as Brenner transforms into Kamen Rider TheBee and he, Lin, and Will attack the rest of the forces.  
**(Mienai mirai ni okoru koto subete ni imi ga aru kara)** Rika and David "Deadeye" Stevens transforms into Kamen Rider Sasword and Kamen Rider Drake respectively and attack some of the Salis Worms.  
**(Ima wa sono mama de ii, kitto kizukeru toki ga kuru darou [WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH])** As Kurogasa battles Punch Hopper and Kick Hopper, Caulder surprisingly joins in and transforms into Kamen Rider Caucasus, going to punch Kurogasa, only for the latter to dodge and he and Caluder stared each other down.

**(You and Me, two have spoken.)** The Hyper ZECTer appears from the distortion of time and Kurogasa grabs it to become Hyper Kabuto.

**([WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH] Itsuka wakariaeru kara)** Kurogasa then grabs the Perfect ZECTer and he and Caucasus leap at each other, their attack causing a huge flash of light. When the light fades, we see Kurogasa, Koji, Rika, Brenner, Will, Lin, Isabella, Tasha, Gage, and Stauffenburg looking out into the sunset, the ZECTers with them as well before the song ends.

* * *

Chapter 1: Days of Ruin

Everything was silent.

Nothing moved. Nothing made a sound.

When I opened my eyes, I saw nothing but darkness. I didn't know where I was… my ears still rang from the explosions I heard earlier, and worst of all… I smelled the scent of flesh.

I knew what that meant. All the people in the restaurant died, and I'm the only one living. I still can't see, but I can tell by the smell that their dead bodies were lying around. As much as I wanted to mourn for theirs deaths, I had to get out of this debris and go above ground. So I slowly dug my way through the debris and pile of bodies, clawing through, in hopes that I would soon get out of this darkness. But that proved to be more difficult because I had an unfortunate injury of having my left arm dislocated. Still, I had to keep going. If I'm going to stay alive, then I have to keep going.

With nothing to eat and drink, I kept crawling my way up to the surface using both my legs and my one good arm. Every now and then, I'd rest from all the digging. Hungry, thirsty, and exhausted, I felt like that I wouldn't be able to make it at all. That soon came to reality as I gradually lost strength, got sick with the fever, and lost oxygen as time passed while coughing badly. And the worst part of all: I began to lose all hope. Is this how it's going to end for me? Am I to die alone in this darkness? …I guess that's what was meant to be.

Wait… What's that light? Could that… be my way out? Yeah… it _has _to be! I'm near!

With new strength, I tried my best to get to that light so I can get to the surface. I crawled and crawled using my legs and right arm, I was so close, but then… my exhaustion got to me… but I can't give up! I _had_ to keep moving…! I _need_ to keep going!

**I WANT TO LIVE!**

Using the last of my strength, I stuck my arm in the light. All I needed to do was push myself; up and out, but… I couldn't do it… I was so exhausted… no… this can't be happening…

I then felt myself beginning to lose consciousness. But as I was fading, I heard something… it sounded like… voices… It almost sounds distorted, but I can hear what the voices were saying and it was the only thing that kept me awake.

"Sir, I got movement in the rubble!" One voice exclaimed. "There's a survivor here!"

"Get 'em outta there now! C'mon, let's go!" Another voice shouted.

That second voice, as I listened to it, sounded rather familiar, though I wasn't sure why at first. I squinted as light hit my eyes and the sound of rocks being moved was heard. Then, I heard the voice again say, though this time only loud enough for me to hear, "K–Kurogasa!?"

I couldn't really see as my vision was still blurry. I've been in the darkness for so long, so I needed to regain my sight, but I knew who the voice belonged to. Or at least I _thought_ I knew who the voice belonged to. "K… K–Koji…" I wheezed.

Upon hearing me say his name, I heard "Koji" shout, "Corporal, get a medic over here and bring him to Ri– the doctor!"

"You got it, Sarge!" the corporal replied before rushing off.

"The rest of you, let's get these rocks off of him!" "Koji" shouted. "Private, get the power saw. We're gonna need to cut that beam. It's too big to move as a whole."

"Yes sir!"

"C'mon, let's go! Move it! Move it! Move it!" "Koji" ordered, before saying to me, "Don't worry buddy. I'm gonna get you outta there, just hang on!"

It seemed like forever, but after only a few minutes, "Koji"'s men had gotten enough rubble off of me to pull me out of the debris pit I was stuck in. They laid me down on one of the bigger boulders just as the soldier Koji sent to get help returned with two medics.

"I got the medics, Sergeant!" the Corporal replied. "We'll get the civilian back to Battalion HQ and get the doctor to look at him right away."

"Thanks, Kowalski." "Koji" said as I was loaded onto a stretcher. "Hang in there, pal. You'll be in good hands. I'll come see you as soon as I can."

That was the last thing I heard before my vision darkened and I passed out.

* * *

_Meanwhile, a few miles away from the wreckage of a city, a group of black armored soldiers wearing helmets that seemed to have been based on insects, were in the middle of an intense conflict with strange alien creatures._

_"Keep firing! Don't let the Worms near the package! We must protect it at all cost!" One man shouted._

_"But, sir, they keep Clocking Up! We can't keep up with them!" Another shouted as he fired at a fast moving blur, only to have it easily dodge the blasts._

_"Platoon B, give me a sitrep on the package!" A third shouted at his communicator._

**["Not good! We're getting the connection devices stored in a jeep for evac, but I don't know if we can hold them off long enough to get them out of here!"]**_ The soldier on the other end said._

_"Crap…" the third soldier said just before getting knocked to the side by one of the fast moving blurs._

_"There's too many! We can't hold them off much longer!"_

_Just then, one of the blurs slammed into the back of one of the trucks, knocking one of the cases to the ground. Out of it came flying what appeared to be a red mechanical rhinoceros beetle. Attached to its feet was some silver belt buckle._

_"Oh no, come back here!" A voice said in the truck as it belonged to a scientist and he came out of the truck carrying a silver briefcase. However, the robotic beetle did not listen and kept flying away. "Impossible…" Growling, he then looked to the opened briefcase and saw that within four similar robotic insects were still inside it: a blue stag beetle, a yellow wasp, a cyan dragonfly, and a purple scorpion. Also in the briefcase was, another silver belt buckle, a grip, a sword, and a brace along with a weapon that was a mix of an axe and gun together. It also looked like a kunai of sorts can be pulled out too. Grunting, he finally said, "Well, I can at least get these ones to safety." Closing up the briefcase, he put it and the one he was carrying into a jeep, as the soldiers kept the aliens busy._

_However, bad luck was on his side as one of the blurs slammed into the back of the jeep and the briefcase holding the mechanical fell out and the mechanical bugs inside got out and escaped, leaving their attachment devices behind._

_"NOOO, COME BACK!" He shouted, but his calls were for naught. The stag beetle, wasp, and dragonfly all flew away as the scorpion scuffled away as quickly as possible on and into the ground, all four of them splitting off into different directions. The scientist then hung his head low as he said, "Oh, my bosses are gonna kill me…"_

_A solider ran up to him and asked, "Hey, what happened to the package?!"_

_The scientist gulped. "Umm… Part of it is here," he smiled nervously, sweating profusely._

_"You let the ZECTers escape?!"_

_"I didn't really have the chance to stop them!" The scientist defended. "It was either let them go and secure the rest of the package, or risk losing what we still have in order to chase down the ZECTers!"_

_"Well get them back!" The soldier shouted._

_"ME?" The scientist bellowed, seeming offended. "I'm just a scientist! _You're_ the soldier! _You_ get them back!"_

_"I can't right now! It's either you retrieve the ZECTers back or stay here and die!" The soldier said before running off to take care of the aliens._

_The scientist grumbled as he watched the soldier run off. "Wait a minute… I got the jeep. I got the gun and the attachment devices! _Let_ them take the fall!" The scientist then got in the jeep, revved up the engine, and drove off as fast as he could._

* * *

What happened to me? Where am I? The last thing I remember was being buried in the rubble until I was supposedly saved by Koji. I was barely conscious, but I could still hear distorted voices. There were voices of distress and panic around me. What's going on?

"Get him to the operating table, stat!" A second familiar voice shouted. "Nurse, get me 20 mg of morphine!"

"Yes ma'am!"

That first voice… Rika…?

I then felt myself lifted through the air, a couple of military medics lifting me onto the operating table. Then, I heard "Rika" say to me as she got into the scrubs, "Hang in there, Kurogasa! Just hang on!"

I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. I was too hurt and injured to say anything.

"Okay, let's go now people! We need to pop his dislocated arm back into place and fix any injury he sustained from the debris!" "Rika" said.

From there, my memory went hazy. I caught glimpses here and there of what was going on around me, but just flashes. Nurses with their tools poking at my body, "Rika" and one or two other doctors discussing things to give me as they tried to close my wounds, and then everything went black for a while…

* * *

_It was hard work as Rika and the nurses were working for two hours straight, but in the end, Kurogasa's arm was finally popped back into place and the nurses patched up any injuries that he sustained while he was buried in the debris. Rika wiped the sweat off her forehead after the scary two hours they went through. "Whew… good work people… Let's stitch him up and get him into the recovery area."_

_This was Rika Ryusaki, a civilian doctor who now works for the 12th Battalion of the Rubinelle Armed Forces. She had long burgundy hair that fell to her mid–back and has brown eyes and at the moment, she wore surgeon clothes, but will soon get out of it. While the nurses were tending to Kurogasa, Rika took off her surgeon mask and went outside the tent, seeing two commanding officers waiting outside._

_One of them was a man who was in mid–20's having tannish white hair and black goatee with a scar on his left cheek. He wore a long sleeved tan combat jacket and pants decorated with segmented brown shoulder, elbow, and knee pads, a belt, and a pair of boots. He also sported the 12th Battalion crest on the left sleeve of his jacket. He looked rough, but his face shows that he was kind._

_This was Captain Brenner, leader and commander of the 12th Battalion._

_The other was female and Asian descent having long, flowing, black hair that fell to her lower back, wearing tan combat pants and brown boots, but she was wearing a sleeveless long tan trench coat that fell to her thighs, and was equipped with the same brown segmented shoulder pads. The coat was open to reveal a black sleeveless shirt that was short and exposed her stomach._

_This was Captain Brenner's, First Lieutenant, Lin._

_Brenner looked to Rika as she approached them and said, "How is our rescued civilian doing, Dr. Ryusaki?"_

_"He's fine. He'll make a recovery." Rika sighed._

_"That's good to hear." Brenner nodded._

_"It seems like you know him too." Lin added._

_Rika nodded as she said, "Yeah, he's one of my best friends. He, Ko– I mean, Staff Sergeant Shinamori, and I grew up together."_

_"I see. Well that explains it." Brenner said._

_The three then heard someone calling out and turned around to see Koji running towards them, "Rika!"_

_Koji was a 22 year old young man, standing about 5'10" with tan skin and dark brown hair and eyes. His hair was usually worn long in a surfer cut. However, to fit more in his uniform, he wore it neatly tied back in a ponytail. Down the side of his right eye was a long scar of an old combat wound. He was dressed in desert style fatigues with the sleeves rolled up over his elbows with tan combat boots on. On his head he wore a black military beret with the insignia for a Rubinelle Armed Forces combat technician and around his waist was a brown gear belt that included his pistol. "How's Kurogasa doing? Is he alright?"_

_"He'll be fine. He just got out of surgery." Rika answered._

_Koji sighed in relief. "Phew… that's a big relief."_

_Lin nodded at Koji as she said, "You did a good job out there, Sergeant. If it hadn't been for you and your platoon, we might not have found any survivors."_

_"The world's been a living hell ever since those meteors hit." Koji reminded. "I'm just glad I was able to find my other best friend. It wouldn't be the same without him."_

_Brenner nodded before he grinned with a closed smile, patting Koji on the arm as he said, "Still, nice work out there, Sergeant. You and your men did well."_

_"Thanks Captain." Koji grinned back._

* * *

"Ugh… my head…" I groaned.

As I finally came to, I found myself in a makeshift recovery room, sitting up slightly and dressed in hospital robes. I had an IV sticking out of my left arm, bandages over several parts of my body, and in all different parts of my body, I felt either in pain or numb from where the morphine was still in effect.

"You're awake!" A voice said.

"Heya buddy." Another greeted casually.

Blinking, I saw two people coming in. Much to my disbelief, it turned out I was not delusional or dreaming when I thought I heard their voices. It really _was_ Koji and Rika. "You guys! You're here! …Wherever _here_ is!"

"Oh Kurogasa, you're okay!" Rika said as she ran over to and hugged me.

I comically, flailed about when she hugged me tight, "Itetetetetetete!"

She then let go of me and blushed bashfully as she said, "Sorry… It's just, gosh, we were worried about you."

"I know you were." I whimpered a bit. "Where _are_ we anyway?"

"We're at the HQ for the 12th Battalion of the Rubinelle Armed Forces." Koji explained.

"The… 12th Battalion HQ…?" I asked.

Koji nodded as he sat down next to Koji, taking off his beret. "Yeah, it's the Rubinelle Army unit I'm attached to. I'm the platoon sergeant for the 12th's Tech Platoon, their combat technicians."

"Oh…" I said.

"I see you're awake." A voice said. The three of us turned around and I saw two people coming in. One of them was a man who was in mid–20's having tannish white hair and black goatee with a scar on his left cheek and he wore a uniform like Koji's. He looked rough, but his face shows that he was kind.

The other was female and Asian descent having long, flowing, black hair that fell to her lower back, wearing tan combat pants and brown boots, but she was wearing a sleeveless long tan trench coat that fell to her thighs, and was equipped with the same brown segmented shoulder pads. The coat was open to reveal a black sleeveless shirt that was short and exposed her stomach.

I slightly blushed at seeing her.

"Captain Brenner, sir!" Koji said, immediately standing up to face him and giving him a salute.

Brenner put his hand up to Koji as he said, "At ease, Staff Sergeant." Looking to me, he then said, extending his hand, "I'm Captain Brenner, commanding officer of the Rubinelle Army's 12th Battalion."

"Kurogasa Kururugi. It's nice to meet you." I said extending my hand and we both shook.

"And this is my First Lieutenant, Lin." Brenner gestured to her.

"Welcome to Brenner's Wolves." Lin nodded.

"Uh… thanks." I said, with me still slightly blushing. I have to admit, Lin looks cute in that uniform. Wait, what am I saying?!

Koji smirked at me knowingly, causing me to shoot him a glare. He had a much better way with women than I did. He chuckled a bit, at my expense before saying, "You know, Lieutenant, Kurogasa is actually quite the chef."

"Koji, what are you doing man?" I hissed.

Lin looked to Brenner as she said, "That could be handy, Captain. With our chef killed earlier, we could use someone who could cook actual food. Otherwise, we'll run out of field rations too soon."

"That's true." Brenner pondered.

"Uh…" I said dumbly.

"Oh don't worry Captain and Lieutenant; He's the head chef of his own diner and he makes the best burgers and fries in all of Rubinelle." Koji grinned, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

Rika nodded in agreement as she said, "Not just that, but a lot of other food as well: fried chicken, steak, and a whole lot of other stuff."

"And he makes a _really_ good Cookies 'n Cream milkshake." Koji added.

"Guy~s…" I blushed bashfully.

Brenner chuckled as he said, "Alright, alright, Sergeant and Doctor, you've sold me." Looking to me, he then said, "So then Kurogasa, how would you like to travel around with my soldiers as our cook?"

"Well…" I began, thinking about it.

"I understand it's very sudden, but with how the world is now…"

"Yeah…" I mumbled. "I can still remember it clear as day. One minute I was minding my own business cooking and the next… bam, the meteors hit out of nowhere…"

Koji nodded as he said, "Yeah… We're still trying to assess the damage, but overall… we're thinking the meteor shower brought on cataclysmic damage… to the entire planet."

"What? Are you serious?" I gasped in horror.

"If you don't believe me, look outside." Koji said.

"I'll help you up." Rika offered. I nodded at that and I slowly got off the bed. With the help of Rika and Koji, I slowly walked to the entrance of the tent and when we opened up the big flaps serving as the door, my eyes widened in horror. The landscape had drastically changed. The once luscious green country of life has now become a barren wasteland of death. It was all rock and dirt, buildings were destroyed and beyond repair, and the atmosphere was blotted with dust and ash, not letting a ray of sunlight break through.

"No way…" I got out. I was so shocked, my knees suddenly buckled and Koji and Rika caught me.

Koji sighed sadly as he lifted me up back into bed. "Yeah… It's that bad. The sheer amount of dust sent up into the atmosphere blocked out a fair amount of the sun's rays, hence why any plants that survived are struggling to grow."

"Not only that… it's hard to find any livestock. Last month, we just finished the last batch of chicken and we've been eating spare rations since." Rika added.

I looked to Rika and asked, "Speaking _of_, Rika… You never joined the military. How'd you wind up with _them_?"

"I ended up like _you_ one time. I was buried in the rubble and was hurt until Koji and his platoon dug me out of there."

Koji's usual confident look and boyish smirk turned serious as he said, "I was lucky I found her… She was in worse condition than _you_ were in. I was just glad to see that she made it out alright."

"I see." I nodded.

"So in a nutshell, the meteors made this world a barren wasteland and we have to deal with it." Lin said.

"And we, Brenner's Wolves have made it our mission to look for survivors and care for them too." Brenner added.

"Hm…" I said. I was thinking for a while before turning to Brenner. "Well in that case… Captain Brenner, I'd be honored to help out become the 12th Battalion's chef. Just get me a frying pan and a chef's hat, and I'll get cooking."

Brenner laughed as he said, "Outstanding! Though, looking at you, I think it might be in your best interest to let yourself heal first, before heading into the kitchen."

"Okay."

*GURGLE*

Everyone looked at me and I looked down at my stomach before looking back up at them with a sweat drop and sheepish laugh, "And I'll probably need something to eat too while I'm at it."

Everyone in the room looked at me incredulously before bursting out into laughter. Koji, being the first to stop laughing, gently tapped my leg before saying, "Don't worry, bro, we'll get you some food."

"Just don't get too excited." Brenner said, after he stopped laughing. "All we got for now is canned bread and a bunch of energy bars."

"That's fine by me." I said.

* * *

So for a number of days, I've been focused on healing myself to full health and after those days, I was ready to go. Of course, I was still in hospital clothes, so I had to change. Fortunately, Brenner surprisingly had for me a spare chef uniform I can use that were my size and after changing…

"Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the new and improved Kurogasa: Official Chef of the 12th Battalion!" I declared after coming into the Briefing Room. I had on a pair of pants that were woodland style fatigues, a meshing of green, brown, and black colors with black combat boots, an olive green t–shirt, and a chef skull cap.

Koji, who was at a table reviewing some maps with Lieutenant Lin, grinned at me as he said, "Not bad, Kurogasa, not bad. You _almost_ look like a soldier!"

"Heh… thanks." I grinned back.

Lin looked at me and raised an eyebrow as she did. "I have to agree. It's not bad."

I blushed, bright red as I scratched the back of my head sheepishly at Lin's compliment. "Uh… thanks."

I saw Koji smiling mischievously, and I glared at him. It's _always_ like this. I have a weakness for the girls' charm and whenever I blush, Koji would usually joke me and this is no exception.

"Hey, Kurogasa, what's wrong, buddy? Are you feeling warm in here? You look red." he said with his usual grin.

"Red because you're starting to irritate me." I growled a bit.

Lin chuckled as she said, "Would you two like to be alone? I don't want to get in the way of a lover's spat."

As I looked at her flabbergasted, Koji laughed and said, "Oh don't worry, LT, we'll be fine again after we have our makeup session."

"I don't roll that way! C'mere so I can strangle you!" I shouted before I ran to him and _he_ ran away.

"Oh, Kurogasa, I love it when you chase me, baby!" Koji yelled at me teasingly.

"SHUT UP!"

That was when both of us were suddenly stopped and our ears were pinched by… Rika!?

"Koji… Kurogasa…" Rika said irritated and I think I heard a vessel pop in her head.

I gulped in terror as I looked to Rika and asked, "Um… Y–Yes, Rika…?"

"Why am I seeing you two acting like little kids?" Rika growled.

Koji, unable to resist, teasing me, said, "Because Kurogasa isn't ready to admit the bond we have between us!"

*PINCH!*

"AH! Itetetetetetete! Okay, okay! I was teasing Kurogasa about his weakness to girls!" Koji winced in pain as Rika pinched his ear.

"Mattaku mou, you're _always_ like this." Rika sighed before she turned to me. "And you need to stop overreacting!"

I groaned at her as I said, "I can't help it. I try not to…"

*PINCH!*

I flailed about as Rika pinched my ear hard, "Itetetetetetetetetetetete!"

"Try harder next time!"

"OKAY, OKAY, OKAY! I WILL! OW! SORRY! I'LL TRY! NOW PLEASE, LET GO!"

Rika let go, making us rub our ears in pain.

"Impressive." Lin said.

Rika smirked as she said, "I've been keeping these boys in line for years!"

Lin chuckled as she said, "I think you could teach some drill sergeants a thing or two."

"Maybe, but I'll stick with the doctor business for now."

Just then, Brenner came into the briefing room, as he stopped himself from running. "Everyone, grab your gear! Scouts have found a survivor and raiders are harassing him!"

Koji immediately got into his soldier mode as he asked, "What kind of raiders, Captain?"

"The ones led by The Beast himself." Brenner frowned.

Koji looked at his CO in disbelief, "Again?! That's the third time this week we ran into him!"

"Who's The Beast?" I raised an eyebrow.

Koji groaned as he said, "The Beast is a Rubinelle Army deserter. He used to serve as a special operations soldier, but after the meteor strike, he decided to capitalize on the chaos by turning his force into a pirate band, attacking people at will for whatever they have."

"Why do _that_? It's ridiculous!" I said a bit angry.

"Ever since those meteors hit, it's always been about survival and people will do any and all means to survive." Brenner reminded.

Lin nodded in agreement as she said, "Not to mention how easy it is. In effect, our battalion has been operating on our own. High Command was destroyed during the shower, making it near impossible to coordinate with other units. It made it simple for him to rogue."

"How many are we dealing with here?" Koji asked.

"He's sent in a pretty large group. Three tanks, supported by six or seven Humvees equipped for convoy escort, and I'd say two platoons of infantry soldiers with a squad carrying heavy ordinance: rocket launchers, mainly." Brenner explained.

"He's using all of that on one survivor?!" Rika gawked. "That's overkill!"

Brenner scoffed as he said, "Apparently he had been raiding a nearby town, taking supplies from some survivors and found this one on the way back to their base."

"Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's go save that survivor sir!" Koji urged.

Brenner gave a nod as he said, "I'm with you. Sergeant Shinamori, take Tech Platoon and take care of those tanks. I'll send 1st Platoon with two our own tanks to cover you. Sneak behind their lines, set the demo–charges on the tanks and blow them up."

"Yes sir!" Koji saluted.

"Uh… what can _I_ do?" I asked. "I know I'm a chef and all, but…"

Koji looked to me and said, looking concerned, "Bud, I'm not sure you _can_ do anything. I mean, you're not a soldier. Have you even fired a gun before?"

"Um… no…" I answered.

Koji sighed as he said, "Then it's probably best you just stay here, Kurogasa. Let me and the troops handle this."

"I guess…" I sighed.

"If you wanna help, you can cook until we get back. That way, when we get back, we can have food as our reward." Brenner suggested with a closed grin. Koji looked to me one last time, patting my arm and giving me as best of an encouraging smile as he could before he ran out to meet with his soldiers.

"Yes sir." I nodded.

"Good." Brenner nodded before turning to his First Lieutenant. "Let's go Lin. You and I will lead a squad to extract the survivor out of there, personally." Brenner said.

"Yes sir!" Lin nodded before the two ran out the briefing room, leaving only Rika and I.

Rika looked to me, placing her hand on my shoulder as she asked, "You okay?"

"I'll be fine." I sighed. "I just wish there was something more I can do other than cook."

Rika sighed too as she said, "I know. But hey, I mean… we all have our jobs in the unit. If it weren't for you cooking or me patching our troops up, the battalion couldn't help people."

"That's true." I shrugged. "Well, I guess we can pass the time doing our thing."

* * *

_"Oh man, where are those ZECTers?" The scientist groaned._

_Even though he had fled the battlefield, not wanting to deal with that soldier, he tried to find the ZECTers as he drove to the base. "At least I know the red one isn't very far thanks to my GPS. It's good to know that I can track these ZECTers with it…"_

_Honing in on its signal, he floored the pedal to the ground and sped after it._

_However, unbeknownst to the scientist, a strange creature was following him._

_The creature was an odd, insectoid looking being, with an emerald green color. Its shiny exoskeleton gave it the appearance of an insect chrysalis given humanoid form. While it's left hand had five fingers, albeit clawed ones, the right hand had instead three: a normal sized thumb and two very long scythe–like claws. However, perhaps most bizarre was that extending from its skeletal torso were what appeared to be the bones of two arms reaching up to cover the eyes of its face which looked like a smiling human skull._

_The strange creature looked around for a while, before looking at the direction the jeep was watching. With a strange growl, it went on its way towards its target._

* * *

_Cover fire! Cover fire! Give Shinamori cover fire!" Brenner shouted as a fire fight ensued._

_The battle ensuing was, quite simply, crazy. Despite being outmatched, the soldiers of the 12th Battalion's 1st Platoon and their two tanks were doing well against the Beast's forces. They had managed to damage one of the Beast's three tanks and destroy four of six Humvees. Also, several of his soldiers had already been killed. That being said, though, the enemy had managed to surround Brenner and his men. However, he needed to buy time for Staff Sergeant Koji Shinamori and Tech Platoon to sneak over to the enemy lines and set the demo–charges on the enemy tanks and Humvees._

_"Alright," Koji said as quietly as he could over the radio to his men as they snuck over, avoiding stray fire and grenades, "I'm going to take A, C, and D Squads to take out the tanks. Sergeant Rusk, you and B Squad rig those Humvees."_

**["Got it, Boss,"]**_ Rusk said over the other end of the radio as his squad broke off._

_"Shinamori to Lin, do you copy? What's your current status of extracting the survivor?" Koji asked._

**["I'm taking 1st Platoon's E Squad to his position. We're about half a click away. What's the status of Tech Platoon, Staff Sergeant?"]**_ She asked._

_"Squad B's about to rig the remaining Humvees. Squads A, C, and D are going for the tanks." Koji answered._

**["Alright, well you better move it. The rest of 1st Platoon is starting to feel the heat!"] **_The lieutenant replied._

_"We're on it, over and out." Koji said. He then signaled his soldiers to speed as much as they could while keeping hidden. At last, they managed to climb up over the ridge and get to the enemy vehicles. "Alright, let's see what we can do here…" He said to himself before signaling one of his men to toss him the first demo–charge. The said man gave him the demo–charge and signaled two of his men to come with and guard him. The two men complied and they quietly went over to one tank without the enemy seeing them before placing the demo–charge on the tank._

_Koji then tapped his radio and said, "A Squad report: demo–charge set. What's the status of the other squads?"_

**["C Squad report: demo–charge set."]**_ One voice said._

**["D Squad report: demo–charge set."]**_ Another said. _**["We're good to go."]**

_"Alright, let's pull out." Koji said._

_As they started to move back, he suddenly heard gunfire that was way too close to be from the main battle. _**["Staff Sergeant Shinamori, this is Sergeant Rusk! B Squad has been detected and we are taking enemy fire!"]**

_Koji's eyes widened, "What?!"_

**["We need some cover fire! Requesting backup!"]**

_"Err… Dang it," Koji growled, clenching his fist before replying, "Alright, we're on our way! Tech Platoon, move out!" Sliding his rifle off his back, he and his men surprised the Beast's soldiers that were attacking B Squad by popping up behind them as they began their attack to rescue their comrades._

_"WHAT! Where did these punks come from?" The Beast roared. _

_The Beast was a monster of a man. Standing close to six and a half feet tall, he had a rich tan on his muscular flesh. He had long brown hair worn down in a wild man style with a full beard, a yellow bandana on his head, no shirt, green fatigue pants, dog tags, yellow arm bands, tribal tattoos all over his body, a full gear belt, and two belts of ammunition for his automatic rifle._

_"Well, well, well, we meet again." Koji gritted._

_"Huh?" The Beast said, before noticing him. "You…! You're that punk that almost shot my head off!"_

_Koji then smirked as he said, "Glad to see you recognized me. I'll make sure not to miss this time. Tech Platoon, take 'em down!"_

_"Yes sir!" His men said, before taking aim._

_"Urgh… Get them, boys! And a bonus goes to the one who brings me the head of their leader!" The Beast shouted as he brought out his rifle._

_The Beast's men took aim too and fired, making Koji's team take cover._

_"Man, not what I had in mind!" Koji gritted._

**["Koji, can you hear me?! It's Rika!"]**_ Her voice panicked on Koji's radio._

_Grunting as he just ducked back down in time to avoid having a bullet go into his eye, Koji replied, "Rika, this isn't exactly a good time right now!"_

**["It's Kurogasa!"]**_ Rika said._

_"What _about_ him?"_

**["He's– He's–"]**

* * *

**30 minutes earlier…**

"Okay, the food is set to go." I grinned to myself looking at the table of food. I was in the makeshift mess hall using the spare rations that the platoon and with Rika and some soldiers helping me out, we were able to cook up a mean dinner.

Rika smiled as she said, "It looks delicious, Kurogasa. And it's certainly better than what we've been having the past few weeks."

"Well, it's a good thing Koji came to my rescue, otherwise I'd stay six feet under forever." I said.

Rika chuckled as she said, "Well, we're all glad that he found you. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to you."

"Yeah, I'm glad too." I smiled gently.

Just then, a soldier came into the mess hall. "Sir, the scouts have reported a jeep coming towards our base."

"Huh? But, Captain Brenner and those soldiers from 1st Platoon and Tech Platoon didn't _take_ any jeeps." I replied confused.

"Well, it's certainly not one of ours." The soldier said.

"Is it the enemy?" Rika gasped.

"To be honest, we're not sure ma'am." The soldier replied.

Looking to one another, Rika and I nodded at each other before following the soldier out of the mess hall and to where the jeep was.

Stepping out of was a very nervous looking man who, looking at his lab coat, appeared to be some sort of scientist. He was talking very nervously to himself as we approached. "Oh man, why… I thought I was heading in the direction of _my_ base… Oh, man, I hope these guys aren't raiders…"

"Uh… can we help you?" I asked confused, raising an eyebrow.

The man gave a very unmanly yelp, leaping into the arms of the soldier next to him who promptly dropped him. When he got up and dusted himself off, he said, trying to be as brave as he could, "W-When ZECT hears–hears what you're doing to me… You–You'll b–be sorry!"

Rika looked confused, "ZECT?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

The scientist blinked in confusion at me before saying, "Y–You're not… You're not going to hold me hostage? Torture me for information on the devices?"

"Why _would_ we? I'm just a chef."

"And I'm a doctor. This is the 12th Battalion HQ of the Rubinelle Armed Forces." Rika said.

The scientist breathed a sigh of relief as he said, "Oh, thank the stars! I've been rescued by civilized people!" Sitting down on the front of his jeep, he then added, "I suppose then I can introduce myself: I'm Dr. Heinrich von Stauffenburg, I'm an electrical engineer and was one of Rubinelle's leading minds in the field of artificial intelligence."

"You mean like aliens?" I asked.

Stauffenburg shook his head. "You're thinking of _extraterrestrial_ intelligence. I'm talking about _artificial_ intelligence, like androids, robots, and the like."

"Oh…" I said dumbly.

I'm Dr. Rika Ryusaki. I'm the battalion's doctor and this is my friend Kurogasa Kururugi. He's the chef." Rika introduced. "What's a scientist like you doing all the way out here?"

Stauffenburg looked both ways quickly, as if he was trying to see if he was being watched. "I was being attacked." he finally admitted.

"Attacked? Attacked by what exactly?" I asked.

"Sorry, but that's kinda classified."

"Huh?" Rika and I said in disbelief.

Stauffenburg sighed as he said, "I'm sorry, but the company I work for, ZECT, was very clear that I keep what I'm doing a secret."

"What's ZECT?" Rika questioned.

"Sorry, but that's classified too."

Rika and I deflated at that.

"C'mon, how can we help you if you keep your mouth shut?" I asked.

The scientist sighed as he said, "I'm sorry, but I just can't– YOOOOOOOOU!" He suddenly shouted, leaping off the front of the jeep and pointing somewhere behind me. "Do you have _any_ idea how much trouble you and your friends have put me through!?"

"Uh… what are you doing?" I asked confused.

"Sorry, he's talking to me." A voice said from behind me.

"Huh? Who said that?" I asked looking around wildly.

"Over here." The voice said. I looked over my left shoulder and saw… a hand–sized red mechanical Japanese rhinoceros beetle? "Hi!"

"Whoa!" Rika and I said startled as we backed off and the strange mechanical beetle got off my shoulder and hovered in the air.

As I looked at the thing in amazement, it flew close up to me and said happily, "My name's Kabuto… What's _your_ name?"

"Um… Kurogasa…" I said uncertain.

The robot beetle flew around me a few times, making me feel like it was sizing me up. "Hmmm… I like you! A lot more than that stuffy scientist over there, anyway."

"Who are you calling stuffy?!" Stauffenburg snapped.

The beetle seemed to ignore him, so Rika asked, "Um… Hi there, Kabuto. I'm Rika. I, uh… I don't mean to sound rude, but… what… exactly are you? I've never seen anything like you before."

"Oh me? I'm a ZECTer!"

Rika and I looked at the mechanical beetle strangely, "A ZECTer?" we asked. But before he could say anymore, Stauffenburg grabbed the mechanical beetle to shut him up.

"What are you doing?! That's classified!"

Kabuto struggled in Stauffenburg's hands, trying to get out as he mumbled out, "Remme ger, I wusn't phinished talkun (Lemme go, I wasn't finished talking)!"

"Well, that's enough talking out of you Mister!" Stauffenburg snapped.

All of a sudden, we heard gunfire, *RATATATATATATATATATATA!*

Stauffenburg shrieked, "AHHHH!" letting go of Kabuto as he leapt into the air, this time… grabbing onto my head like a koala, causing me to fall over.

"Get off of me!" I snapped. I pushed Stauffenburg off of me as I got myself back onto my feet.

Kabuto floated next to my head as he said, "Uh–oh, sounds like we got trouble comin'!"

"What's going on?" Rika asked.

"Ahhhhh, what are you?! Get away from me!" A voice shouted.

"Keep firing! Keep firing!" Another shouted.

Kabuto then gasped as he shouted, "Oh no! The Worm found us!"

Now I was _really _confused, "Worm?" I asked.

"As in like an earthworm?" Rika added.

"Not _that_ kind of Worm. I meant an alien Worm that came from outer space thanks to those meteors that hit this planet!"

Rika and I looked at the mechanical beetle in shock, "WHAT?!"

Kabuto then looked to me confused as he said, "You mean you guys didn't know?"

"NO!"

"Oh…" Kabuto replied before turning to us as he said, "Well, those Worms are alien invaders capable of copying the identities of life forms they come in contact with. They came in those meteorites to take over Earth!"

"Kabuto, that's classified!" Stauffenburg shouted.

Kabuto looked to him and gave Stauffenburg a big "SHOOSH!" Then, turning back to me, he asked, "You wanna help me defeat this one, Kurogasa?"

"Me? How could _I_ help? I'm just a chef!" I said incredulously.

Kabuto got very close to my face as he said, "You may think you're just a chef, but I can see you got the heart of warrior in you. If you team up with me, I can help you transform into a Kamen Rider!"

"A… Kamen Rider?" I asked.

"Man, you ask a lot of questions." Kabuto said.

"That's because we're dealing with something unknown and we need to know." I pointed out.

"Look out!" The soldier that accompanied us, shouted.

We ducked just in time to avoid being knocked over by another soldier that was thrown through the air. "What the–" Was all the time I had to say before I finally saw it, the Worm Kabuto had told us about.

"What the heck is _that_?!" Rika said horrified.

"That's the Worm I talked about!" Kabuto pointed out.

It was insectoid like, with an emerald green color. Its shiny exoskeleton gave the appearance of an insect chrysalis given humanoid form. Its left hand had five fingers, albeit clawed ones, the right hand had instead three: a normal sized thumb and two very long scythe–like claws. However, perhaps most bizarre was that extending from its skeletal torso were what appeared to be the bones of two arms reaching up to cover the eyes of its face which looked like a smiling human skull.

Rika gagged as she said, "It's disgusting!"

Kabuto then nudged as he said, "Well, what are you waiting for!? Let's do it, aibou!"

"Uh…" I said uncertain. But before anything could happen, I noticed something strange with the Worm. "Kabuto…? What's happening to that thing now?" I asked as the Worm suddenly letting off steam and was changing color.

The mechanical beetle gasped as he said, "Oh no! It's changing form! It's maturing! Once it breaks out of its cocoon, it'll be more powerful!"

"Are you serious?!" I asked in disbelief. After a few seconds, it shed off its green pupa form to reveal an even _more_ disgusting insectoid.

When the thing finally evolved, the Worm appeared to be a humanoid locust. It had a yellowish green exoskeleton with bulging purple eyes. Coming from its head were long antennae. Its legs were long and bent back for jumping. Underneath the shell of its back were three pairs of reflective, rainbow-like wings. And at the end of its arms were scythe–like blades like those of a praying mantis. This was the Locust Worm.

"Yabai… this isn't good…" Kabuto whimpered.

All of a sudden, the Locust Worm was gone in a flash.

"What the–"

"Oh no, it Clocked Up!"

"What does that mean?" Rika asked in a panic, trying to see the creature.

"The Worm's moving at the speed of light!"

I asked in shock, "The speed of light?! How is that possible!?" before seeing several of the soldiers on the base go flying.

"Oh man, this isn't good!" Stauffenburg said. "Alright, normally I wouldn't do this, but there's no other way. Kurogasa, I'll allow you to use Kabuto!"

"Wait, what?!" I asked confused. "What are ya talking about?"

"Kabuto, where's the Rider belt you carried around?!" Stauffenburg asked the ZECTer, ignoring me.

Kabuto titled himself up, so his horn was pointing upwards, revealing the Rider Belt was still attached to his feet. "It's right here!"

"How did it get _there_?" I asked baffled. "I didn't see you carry that on your feet!"

"I folded it up to my underside!" Kabuto shouted. "Now come on! Let's do this!" He then tossed me the Rider Belt. "Put it on your waist like a belt buckle!"

"Uh… okay?" I said, before I did what Kabuto told me to do. Suddenly, a belt extended from the buckle, going around my waist and attaching to the other side. "Alright, what do I do next?"

"Let me do the rest!" Kabuto said before flying around me and finding the tracks on the buckle, he slid on and locked into place and I heard mechanical sounds after he shouted, "Henshin!"

**HENSHIN!**

Suddenly hexagon panels formed from my belt and it kept spreading out all over my body until I was finally encased in the stuff. For some reason I don't know, I knew what I looked like.

My body was concealed in a black bodysuit, but the rest of it was concealed in heavy steel armor. The torso was thick and blocky with a high collar and the only color is around the collarbone area. The shoulder plating is rounded with silver steel and red on the undersides. Black disks reside near the joints, and the left one sported a red rhino beetle insignia for its makers, ZECT. The arms are layered with circular metal segments protecting the arms, and the helmet was also a piece of thick silver steel complete with a round blue visor and a crest of horns on the forehead.

I touched myself all over my legs, chest, arms, and head, looking down. "Eh? EH?! EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!"

"You like your new look?" Kabuto asked cheekily. "Kurogasa, you're now Kamen Rider Kabuto in Masked Form! Now, we can start kicking some Worm butt!"

"Yeah, but I'm not exactly the fighting type!" I pointed out.

"Just trust your instincts! And if you really need help, I can help!"

"O–Ok." I nodded.

That's when Rika ran, found, and got a radio from the supply tent. "Koji, can you hear me?! It's Rika!" She panicked.

**["Rika, this isn't exactly a good time right now!"]** Koji shouted back over the other end.

"It's Kurogasa!"

**["What **_**about**_** him?"]**

"He's– He's–"

**["He's what!? Is he okay!? Is– DANG! Those bullets are getting **_**way**_** too close!"]**

"Just get over here! You need to see this!" Rika shouted before turning off the radio.

As Rika finished, I suddenly felt something powerful slam into me, sending me flying backwards, "AHHH!"

"Kurogasa," Rika cried out, as I landed on my back.

"Ow…" I groaned.

Kabuto groaned in frustration as he said, "Maybe you're gonna need more help than I thought."

* * *

_"Rika, are you there?! Come in, Rika!" Koji shouted, but there was no answer. "Crap!" He gritted before radioing Brenner. "Captain, I just got word from HQ! Something's going on over there!"_

**["Copy that, Sarge! We appreciate the stop in fire from those tanks, but where are you and your men?"] **_Brenner inquired._

_"We're being pinned down here by The Beast and his men! I need some cover fire! What's the status of the extraction of the survivor?"_

**["We got him."]**_ Lin replied, _**["But we need a speedy way to get him back to base!"]**

_Koji suddenly smirked before firing a few rounds at the Beast's men. "Then maybe it's a good thing B Squad wasn't able to plant the charges on the Humvees."_

**["You got a plan?"]**_ Lin asked._

_"Yeah, I got one. I'll steal one of their Humvees and we'll get back to base that way! Captain, Lieutenant, get the survivor ready! As soon as I pull up to ya, we're going!"_

**["Nice job, Shinamori!"]**_ Brenner praised. _**["But move quickly! We need to deal with whatever disturbance is at the base!"]**

_"Copy that, over and out!" Koji said before turning off the radio. "Hey guys, give me some cover fire! I'm gonna steal of the Humvees and take the survivor back to base! As soon as I do, blow the charges up and get out of there!"_

_Once he got two of his men to give him covering fire, he managed to make it through the firestorm of bullets and make his way to one of the Humvees._

_"Hey, I'm gonna be borrowing this now! See ya later!" Koji said cheekily to the Beast as he got in the driver's seat._

_"DAMN YOU, PUNK!" The Beast shouted as he watched helplessly as Koji rode off with his Humvee._

_"Alright, he's outta there! Blow those tanks to kingdom come!" Rusk said. On the command of Koji's second–in–command, the soldier holding the detonator hit the button, sending the tanks to kingdom come._

_"NO! NOT MY TANKS!" The Beast roared, before saying, "Grrrr… head for the hills roaches! We're retreating for now!"_

_The rest of Tech Platoon gave a cheer as the forces of the Beast began their retreat. Rusk looked to the soldiers and said, "Hoorah, boys! Dynamite work! Alright, let's go meet up with the rest of the troop! Move out!"_

_"Yes sir!"_

* * *

_Meanwhile, the other fire fight ensued and Brenner and Lin were firing at the enemy with their pistols protecting the survivor. The young man in question seemed to be about to be in his late teens, possibly 19 with mid__–_length brown _two–toned hair with_ _the front part seeming white with the back part being brown _and defined eyelashes. He also had black eyes, peach skin, stood about 5'9", and was dressed in a white t–shirt, a tan Rubinelle Army uniform shirt with the sleeves rolled up, red fingerless gloves, a blue tie, tan pants, brown shoes, and a gear belt with a pistol on it.

_"Hang on Will, transport is on the way." Brenner assured._

_The young man, now identified as Will, grunted and nodded as the medic patched up his wounds. "O–Okay…"_

_Just then, Koji came, riding up in a Humvee as the firing went down a bit. Smirking, he leaned out the window and said, "I managed to get a great deal on this baby down at the repo lot!"_

_"Nice timing Sarge!" Lin said._

_"Is that the survivor?" Koji asked._

_"Yes, this is Will. He's a Cadet at the Rubinelle Military Academy!" Brenner explained._

_"He's a cadet?! No _wonder_ The Beast was preying on him!" Koji said in disbelief._

_Lin nodded, popping up over the Humvee to shoot at some of the trailing soldiers of the Beast as she said, "Yes, and now that've we gone through the obvious, I think it would be a good idea to get him in the Humvee and back to base to get healed!"_

_"Right; and we have to figure what disturbance we have over at the base! Get in!" Koji said._

_Brenner hopped into the Humvee shotgun as Lin and the two medics tending Will carried him in. Once they were all in, Koji revved the engine and drove back to base as the rest of 1st Platoon and Tech Platoon covered their escape, holding off the last stragglers of the Beast's soldiers._

* * *

Gah! This is not what I had in mind! I'm getting my butt kicked all over the place by this Worm thing!

No matter how hard I tried, I was finding that in Masked Form, the Worm was just way too fast for me to keep up with when it Clocked Up. "Ugh…" I groaned, pushing myself up after the Locust Worm's last attack, "Kabuto… There has to be some other way I can fight that thing… something to even the odds, right?"

"There is, but that Locust Worm ain't letting ya do that!" Kabuto said.

"Well, you mind telling me what it is so I can make a plan _to_ let me do it!?" I shouted.

"Catch!" Stauffenburg suddenly shouted, throwing something to me and I caught it. It was a weapon that was a mix of an axe and gun together. It also looked like a dagger of sorts can be pulled out too.

"What is it?" I asked.

"That's the Kunai Gun! It has three modes: Gun, Dagger, and Axe mode! It should help you out!"

Looking at the gun quickly, I said, "Seeing as it's too fast for me to get in close, best to start with Gun Mode. Alright, take this!" I then pulled the trigger, shooting just in time to hit the Worm as it tried to attack me, sending it flying backwards.

"Nice job!" Rika cheered.

"Alright," I cheered too. "Let's try Axe Mode next!" I said, before holding it by the barrel so that I was holding it like an axe. This time, I waited for the Worm to try and charge me again. Knowing it was moving faster than me, I needed to time my attack just right. When it came, flying towards me, I saw it move in and just before it slashed me, I slashed it instead, sending a stream of sparks off its chest as it fell back.

"Good going, aibou, you got it on the ropes now!" Kabuto praised.

"Thanks. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this." I said.

Kabuto then said, "Alright, but if we're gonna finish this thing off, we're gonna need to shed a little weight."

"How do I do _that_?" I asked, but before he could answer, we heard the sound of a vehicle coming towards the base.

"Whoa!" Koji shouted from the front seat. "What the heck are _those_ two!?" He exclaimed, pointing to me and the Worm.

"I've never seen anything like it." Lin said.

"What's going on?" Brenner asked.

"Koji, there you are!" Rika shouted as the Humvee came, closing in on our position.

"Rika, what's goin on here?" He asked, still in the Humvee.

The Locust Worm then got back on its feet and set its eyes on Rika and the others in the Humvee, giving an insect–like clicking noise from its mandibles.

"This is bad! Kurogasa, it's about to attack them! You gotta Cast Off the armor!" Kabuto cried out.

"How do I do _that_?" I asked in a panic, wanting to stop that thing before it hurt my friends.

"Flip my horn slightly so the armor can spread out a little. Then you can flip my horn back completely!"

"O–Ok, I'll do that!" I said, before I did what I was told. I flipped Kabuto's horn slightly and I heard a charging noise as blue electricity crackled in my armor. The segmented armor on my arms spread out a bit, letting out steam, before the bulky armor on my torso, shoulders, and head did the same thing.

"Now say Cast Off and flip my horn completely!" Kabuto said.

"Right, here goes!" I said before holding on Kabuto's horn, "Cast Off!" I then flipped the horn to the other side letting the gold part of his horn that's under Kabuto show and his back slid open.

**CAST OFF!**

Suddenly, the pieces of my armor went flying off in little parts straight towards the Worm.

"Rika, look out!" Koji shouted, leaping out of the Humvee to try and protect her.

"AHHHHHHH, GET AWAY!" Rika screamed as the Locust Worm went towards her and Koji covered her. However, before it could get to them, the Worm was knocked away by the ejected parts of my armor.

Meanwhile, a horn appendage looking like a Japanese rhino beetle's horn rose up from my chest armor and locked in place in the middle, bisecting the visor.

**CHANGE: BEETLE!**

* * *

**BGM: Full Force by RIDER Chips feat. Ricky**

Looking at myself now, my armor is noticeably smaller than my Masked Form, and it appears much more maneuverable. My arms were free of the metal plating, minimally protected only by single sheets of steel running along my arms. The shoulder pads were red with a silver trim, fitting the curve of my real shoulders, appearing lightweight with an easy fit. My torso armor was completely crimson and looked thicker than the rest, but still light. The chest plate even looked like the back of a beetle's shell, covering my abdomen. My helmet was also red, and as said earlier, the horn appendage looking like a Japanese rhino beetle's horn rose up from my chest armor and locked in place in the middle, bisecting the visor, giving the appearance of two large blue eyes instead of the single visor of before.

"Captain, are you seeing this?" Lin gasped.

"I see, but I don't believe." Brenner said wide eyed.

Kabuto then said, "Kurogasa, say hello to Kamen Rider Kabuto – Rider Form."

"Sweet," I said looking over myself.

Kabuto murmured in agreement before saying, "In this form, you should be able to finish of the Worm as you now can Clock Up as well, putting you on an even footing."

"How do I do that?"

"See that square button on your right side of the belt?" Kabuto asked. I looked down and noticed it, making me nod. "Press it."

Eyeing the button, I pressed it down.

**CLOCK UP!**

As soon as I pressed the button, my whole world slowed down instantly, surprising me. "What the–"

"You're in Clock Up mode! You're moving at the speed of light!" Kabuto said.

Looking around, I saw the Locust Worm as it got up and started moving again, wanting to get me this time. However, now that I was moving at his speed, he didn't seem nearly as fast. "This is great! I can actually fight him now!"

"Then go for it!" Kabuto encouraged. Nodding, I ran forward, dodging a slash from the Worm before cutting it with my ax and then gave it a kick to the head. "Good! Good! Now hit him with your dagger! Hold the barrel of the Kunai Gun and a dagger should slide out!" Kabuto said.

Doing as my ZECTer instructed, I switched the gun to Kunai Mode. "Alright, what do I do now?"

"Slash at him!"

Kabuto finished just in time for me to dodge another attack from the Locust Worm, though this time it was far more ferocious. We went back and forth, exchanging slashes with our blades.

"Man, this guy is getting aggressive now." I commented.

"Then I think it's time to finish him off!" Kabuto stated. "It's to use your secret weapon: the Rider Kick!"

I asked, "Rider Kick?"

Before Kabuto could say any more–

**CLOCK OVER!**

Eh?!

Suddenly, I found myself going back to normal speed, only to have my body get slashed all over as the Worm kept going at light speed, "AGH!" I yelled as sparks flew off my armor and I fell to the ground. "Ka–Kabuto… Wha–What… What happened?"

"You ran out of time." Kabuto stated. "I forgot to mention that you only have a limited time to be in Clock Up mode."

"That bit of info would've been good before!" I complained, only to get kicked again by the Worm, causing me to knock over the jeep I got hit into. "Ugh… What do I do now?"

"Hang in there, Kurogasa!" Rika cried out.

"Eh? That armored guy is Kurogasa?!" Koji asked shocked.

"I'll explain later, Koji! Right now, we gotta help Kurogasa!" Rika exclaimed.

"Right," Koji said then shouted to the Worm, "Hey ugly!" getting its attention. Immediately, Koji grabbed a rocket launcher from the back of the Humvee and, in his best Al Pacino impression, shouted, "Say hello to my little friend!" He pulled the trigger and fired the RPG at the Locust Worm. The Worm stupidly tried to grab the RPG, but it exploded in his grip, sending it back into one of the tents set up on base.

"Hah! How do ya like me now?" Koji boasted.

"Nice job Koji!" Brenner praised.

"Still… Kurogasa being… in that armor…" Lin said stunned. "It's incredible…"

"What… What is he?" A guy who looked in his teens asked, who I've never seen before. Is that the survivor?

Rika looked to the survivor and said, "According to Kabuto, the robot beetle on his waist, he's a Kamen Rider."

Koji, Brenner, Lin, and the survivor looked confused, "Kamen Rider?"

"I can explain that later." Stauffenburg said.

"And who are you?" Brenner asked.

"Again, I'll explain later. Right now, Kurogasa has to defeat that Worm."

As the Worm got back on its feet and growled at Koji, I looked to Kabuto and asked, "Aibou, that Rider Kick thing you mentioned. It can finish off the Worm, right? How do I do it?"

"See the buttons on the side of my feet?" Kabuto said. "Press them from left to right."

"Okay." I nodded.

**1!**

**2!**

**3!**

"Now close me back up and put my horn back into place." Kabuto said next. I did as he requested and adjusted his controls. "Now flip my horn slightly to charge up for the kick." I grabbed hold of Kabuto's horn and flipped slightly, charging up the attack. Hearing the charging noise again the Locust Worm noticed me charging up for my attack and ran towards me before jumping at me.

"NOW FLIP MY HORN BACK!" Kabuto shouted, and I flipped the horn back to its place so that the gold part of his horn that's under him show and his back slid open again.

**RIDER KICK!**

Blue electricity crackled from Kabuto before it traveled up to the beetle horn on my helmet, and then down my right leg ending on my foot and as soon as the Locust Worm was really close to me, I did a 180 roundhouse kick, hitting my target, having my back facing the Locust Worm.

The Worm screeched out loud as it took the force of the blow, its body being covered by the electricity. Several seconds later, the alien exploded in a yellowish–green fiery explosion.

**End BGM**

* * *

"Wohoo, he did it!" Stauffenburg cheered.

"Amazing…" Rika said in awe.

"Dang…" Koji muttered, "I gotta get me one of those…"

"Incredible…" The survivor said in amazement.

"Yes… I've never seen anything like it." Brenner asked as Kabuto detached from my belt and my armor broke down into hexagon panels before being absorbed into the belt. Koji and Rika then ran over to me as I sat down on a fallen beam, breathing a sigh of relief while Kabuto sat on my shoulder.

"Bro, that was amazing!" Koji exclaimed. "How did you do that?"

"To be honest, I don't know…" I answered.

Rika then hugged me tightly, pressing her cheek against mine. "Well no matter how you did it, you're a hero!"

"OW! OW! OW! Go easy with the hug Rika!" I winced in pain. "That Worm did a number on me!"

Rika let me go, blushing in embarrassment as she said, "Sorry… You okay, though?"

Stauffenburg, meanwhile, was busy typing away at his laptop. "Oh, wow! That was amazing! The Masked Rider Project has exceeded expectations by 200%! Oh, this is FANTASTIC!"

"Who's _that_ guy?" Koji asked with a confused deadpan.

"Uh… that's a long story." I sweat dropped.

"Then we can talk about it over dinner." Brenner said, approaching me along with Lin and the survivor. "I have to admit, it was impressive."

"Thanks, Captain." I said with a sheepish grin, scratching my cheek.

* * *

And so with that, after cleaning up around the base, and the rest of the soldiers that went out, coming back, we all went to the makeshift mess hall which thankfully wasn't destroyed by the Worm. The survivor introduced himself as Will, a Cadet from the once Rubinelle Military Academy. He was in the cafeteria eating lunch when the meteors hit and was able to get out, but the Beast got to him, and was about to kill him until Brenner and his team arrived.

"Wow, looks like we managed to get there just in time." Koji said, taking a bite of his chicken.

"Yeah, I thought I was gonna die, until you showed up." Will said.

"You did well to stay alive. I'm impressed." Brenner said.

"I didn't want to die."

"But anyways, now that things have calmed down, I can properly introduce myself. I'm Captain Brenner. I command the 12th Battalion, pride of the Rubinelle Army. And this is my second in command…"

"First Lieutenant Lin," Lin nodded. "Welcome to Brenner's Wolves."

"Thank you, Sir, Ma'am." Will answered.

Koji then said, "I'm Staff Sergeant Koji Shinamori, platoon sergeant for the 12th's Tech Platoon. These are my friends, Dr. Rika Ryusaki, our head doctor, and Kurogasa Kururugi, our chef."

Will looked at me in amazement. "Your _chef_ is the guy who managed to destroy that freaky monster thing?"

"Well, yeah…" I laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head.

"Speaking of which, bud," Koji said, turning back to me, "Maybe now you can explain to the rest of us what the deal was with that alien… and the little robot beetle on your shoulder… and the eccentric and slightly creepy scientist."

"HEY!"

"Um… Sorry?" Koji shrugged to Stauffenburg.

"I'll have the scientist here explain it. He knows the stuff better than I do." I said.

Stauffenburg sighed as he closed his laptop. "I guess since you guys saved me, I owe you an explanation. I'll start with what I already told Kurogasa and Rika. I'm Dr. Heinrich von Stauffenburg, artificial intelligence expert from Rubinelle, and currently the project leader on a top secret project for ZECT."

"ZECT, you say?" Brenner said, his tone indicating he was familiar with the word.

"You know them?" I asked, puzzled.

Lin nodded, explaining to me, "ZECT was a well–respected but secretive weapons research and development corporation. Many of Rubinelle's most advanced weaponry came out of there."

"Exactly, thus was the reason why I always say that our stuff is classified."

"Yeah, I noticed…" I deadpanned.

"Anyway," Stauffenburg said, giving me the stink eye before continuing, "Given my skill in artificial intelligence, I was assigned as the lead designer on the ZECTer project, ZECTers being the robotic creatures like Kabuto. They were developed to fight the Worms."

"You mean that creature Kurogasa fought?" Brenner asked.

"Yes. These Worms can blend into the human population by copying the faces of their victims along with their memories. They only require a look at the human to copy their image, but once done so, they _will _kill the original at all costs. The Worm believes the person that was mimicked now exists as a part of them due the fact they also acquired their victims' personalities." Stauffenburg explained before adding, "In other words, the Worms can _and_ will copy your entire existence."

Koji, Rika, Will, and I shuddered at the thought while Lin and Brenner frowned with worry.

"Oh man…" Koji muttered.

"That's pretty scary…" Rika trembled.

"These aliens are capable of _doing_ such a thing?" Will asked.

"Yes." Stauffenburg said before opening his laptop and typed a few keystrokes before turning it around to show to us the Worm in its pupa state and adult state. "There are two stages to the Worms. The first is the Salis Form, taking on the shape of a chrysalis. A Worm in a Salis state normally have a green body, but there have been scenarios where it was not so. After a Worm is threatened or endangered, it goes to the second stage and it will molt, to reveal a stronger form that can move at blinding speeds which comes from their high metabolism."

"The Clock Up mode…" I muttered.

"That's right, Kurogasa. And after further research, it's later revealed that the Worms don't need to naturally molt, and their "cast" can be broken off or shattered. They also have the ability to revert back into a Salis form if necessary. And when a Worm is destroyed, it explodes into flames that share its predominant color."

"I see…" Lin said.

"So where did these Worms come from?" Will asked.

Stauffenburg pointed to the sky above and said, "They arrived in the meteors from outer space, originating on some far off planet."

"Excuse me?" Lin raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"You're meaning to say that those Worms came from the meteors that hit the Earth?" Brenner asked, looking shocked.

Stauffenburg nodded as he said, "Correct. That meteor shower was no accident… It was a stealth invasion."

We all looked at him in shock and disbelief, "WHAAAAAAAAT?!"

"Why would they want to invade Earth?" Rika asked.

"Earth's population was the closest one big enough to provide identities for their whole species." Stauffenburg explained.

"Besides the obvious…" Rika deadpanned.

"The Natives wanted us to protect them."

"Who are the Natives?" Koji asked confused.

"They are another species of Worms, but unlike the hostile ones, the Natives are peaceful and want to coexist." Standing up, Stauffenburg walked over to me and pointed to Kabuto. "As a matter of fact, they're the ones who helped me design and build the ZECTers."

"They built the ZECTers?" I asked.

"They sure did! Their technology was far too advanced than our own. I couldn't comprehend it at first, when they first showed me the blueprints for the ZECTers."

"Just how many of these ZECTers are there?" Koji asked curiously.

"There were five we built: Kabuto, Gatack, TheBee, Drake, and Sasword."

"And you based them off of the insects of our world?" Lin questioned.

"Yes." Stauffenburg nodded. "Kabuto is of course a red rhino beetle, Gatack is a blue stag beetle, TheBee is a yellow wasp, Drake is a cyan dragonfly, and Sasword is a purple scorpion."

"Then where are the rest of these ZECTers?" Will asked.

Stauffenburg gulped, pulling on his collar as he said, "Yes, um… about that…"

"We all kinda ran away..." Kabuto admitted.

"You ran away?" Will blinked.

"Well, more like _flew_ away if you wanna get technical. Sasword did the actual running, or in his case, scuttled away."

"Why'd you guys run off?" I asked Kabuto.

"It's a bit hard to explain, but… the thing is, despite ZECT having picked Riders for us, because of our sentience, we are designed to pick the candidates we _want_ to pair up with as Kamen Riders."

Brenner raised an eyebrow at Kabuto, "Kamen Riders?"

"It means 'Masked,'" Kabuto explained.

"He wants to know who they are." Lin clarified.

"Oh, right!" Kabuto said. "Kamen Riders/Masked Riders is the name given to the users of the ZECTers, hence the Masked Rider Project. Harnessing our power, they become encased in armor like Kurogasa was and gain access to a set of abilities that allow them to fight on par with a Worm."

"So… they're like super soldiers?" Rika asked.

"To an extent, yeah," Kabuto nodded

Looking to Stauffenburg, I asked, "So then these other four ZECTers are looking for people they think will make suitable partners/Riders?"

"Yep, I still have their attachment devices with me, so once we find them, maybe someone in the 12th Battalion can use them."

Lin looked to Brenner and said, "Those could certainly come in handy, Captain; especially if we run into more of those Worms."

"That's true." Brenner said. "Alright then, we'll rest up tonight and move out first thing in morning after breakfast. We still need to look for more survivors."

Stauffenburg then said, "Say, uh, Captain… I don't suppose you could find a place for me here in the battalion?" Nervously, he scratched the back of his head and said, "ZECT isn't gonna be too happy with me, and… besides that, I think I could be more help here."

"Of course, you're more than welcome." Brenner nodded.

The scientist breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Perfect! You won't regret it, Captain! With my scientific knowledge at your disposal, no one'll be able to stop you!"

"Let's not jump the gun yet. I'm not a guy who's all into science, but I'm sure you'll be a great asset in our battalion." Brenner said.

"I'm glad to hear you say that." Stauffenburg smiled.

* * *

"Whoo, what a day…" I sighed, as I plopped down on my sleeping bag.

Koji, my new roommate as he volunteered to let me stay with him even though as a battalion staff member earned a room of his own, chuckled as he sat down on his cot, taking out his blue electric guitar and began to softly play a blues riff. "You're telling me. First was that big victory against the Beast, then you becoming a superhero, more or less."

"Yeah, and I got a new friend in the form of a red mechanical rhino beetle." I added.

Kabuto came, flying into the room, buzzing happily as he rested on the desk and said, "Yep! And we're gonna be really good friends!"

Koji chuckled as he said, still playing, "You seem like a pretty cool dude, Kabuto. Who knows? Maybe if I'm lucky, I can team up with one of your friends."

"Hmmmmm…" Kabuto said as he flew over to Koji and circled around him. "Looking at you, I think you'd be good with Gatack."

"He's the stag beetle, right?" I asked, sliding into my sleeping bag.

"Yes, he is." Kabuto chirped.

Just then, the flap from our tent entrance opened up to reveal… Lin?

Koji hopped up to attention, "Lieutenant!"

Lin raised a hand. "At ease, I only want to talk with Kurogasa."

He gave me a grin before turning back to her as he said, "I'll leave you two alone then, Ma'am."

I shot Koji a glare as he and Kabuto went out before turning back to Lin. "What's up?" I asked as I got out of my sleeping bag.

"First of all, I'd like to say you did very well fighting off against that Worm."

"Uh… thanks." I said, slightly blushing.

"However… seeing your fight, I noticed that you only relied on your instincts, and that alone isn't going to help you survive in the world we live in now."

I looked at her sheepishly as I said, "Yeah, well… I've never had any formal combat training before."

"That's why I've come here. I want to teach you combat training."

"You want to teach me to fight?" I asked in surprise.

"Yes. With those Worms out there, you need to be prepared and know how to fight properly. So what do you say?"

I thought about her proposal for a while, and when I really think about it, it's definitely the best suggestion. When I fought the Locust Worm, I only relied on pure instincts. But as Lin said, that alone won't help and save me from seeing another day. I need to get stronger and better, so that I don't have to be a burden to anyone.

"You got yourself a deal." I nodded.

"Good answer." Lin scoffed with a smirk. "We'll start training after we move out and find a place to set up camp. Don't think I'll go easy on you though."

"I don't think you _look_ like someone that would go easy on _any_one." I said. "But I'll do my best."

"Good. Now get some rest. We got long day tomorrow."

"Okay. Good night." I said.

"Good night." Lin replied, before she went out of the tent and Koji came back in.

Koji smirked at me, leaning against the wall as he said, "So, should I be expecting a sock on the door?"

"Are you really gonna joke me right now?" I groaned with a facepalm.

He chuckled as he strode over to his bed and picked up his guitar again. "When do I ever _not_ joke you when I have the chance?"

"Ugh… I'm not even gonna answer that."

Koji chuckled again before he began to play again. "So, seriously, what _did_ the lieutenant wanna talk about?"

"She wanted to personally give me training on hand–to–hand combat."

Koji could barely keep from grinning as he said, "Is that what they're calling it these days?"

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

Koji gave me a deadpan look before face palming. "Ugh… you're hopeless, sometimes… I was joking that it was euphemism for doing the horizontal tango… Think about it."

I thought about it for a moment before I groaned with a facepalm. "I'm not even gonna comment on that."

Koji shook his head before he began to play more blue riffs on his guitar. Looking to him, I asked, "You've started playing the blues now? Whatever happened to my buddy, the disco–loving ladies' man who always got the girls?"

Koji sighed sadly as he said, "After everything that's happened… Disco's groove didn't seem appropriate to me. It was all about fun and the joy of being alive. But after so much death… the musician in me got a lot more melancholy."

"Yeah, I noticed." I said. "Look I didn't mean to–"

"No it's okay. Things just happen and we gotta do what we can." He then gave me a sad smile as he said, "I know you didn't mean any offense." He then gave a soft chuckle as he said, "On the bright side, it's given me a chance to brush the rust off my guitar skills."

"Yeah, that much is true." I chuckled back. "Ever since you got into disco, you got rusty on the guitar."

Koji nodded as he said, "Yeah… mainly because guitar wasn't as prevalent in it."

I should probably give you guys a quick recap: As you know, Koji and I were best friends along with Rika. Our parents had all been best friends. For as long as I could remember, Koji had a passion for music, any kind. He loved the way it could inspire emotion in people. One day, while we were exploring his attic, Koji found a trunk full of his dad's old stuff from the 1970s: platform shoes, puka shells, Bee Gees records, and everything. And Koji loved it all. So, he started dressing in disco inspired threads, started talking the lingo, learned all the dances, everything. And the girls loved it, turning him into even more of a ladies' man than he was. Wanted to go to college to study music and open his own disco label, bring it back so people could enjoy the fun of it all again. Of course… after the meteor shower… Well, I guess you can already see for yourselves.

"Well, I don't know about you two." Kabuto finally said. "But this beetle is ready to snooze away."

Koji nodded in agreement, putting his guitar away. "I'm with you, little dude. After today's excitement, I could use a few winks."

"Yeah, me too," I said before sliding into the sleeping bag again. "I'll see you two in the morning."

"Alright, goodnight guys," Koji said as he turned out the lamp and hopped into his cot.

Kabuto then landed next to me, crawled into the sleeping bag slightly, and curled up on the part of my pillow that wasn't taken by my head. "Night, aibou,"

"Good night." I said before we fell asleep. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. With the world we live in now and everything happening… somehow… someway… we have to survive…

* * *

**Fen: **Well, what a way to kick off my return! How do you like the chapter huh? Was it amazing or what!

**Audience:** WHEW! YEAH! ALRIGHT! *continues to clap and cheer*

**SD:** Haha! Sounds like they like it!

**Fen:** Thanks everyone!

**SD:** Glad you enjoyed, and hope, you guys come back for the next chapter and check out our other stories! And always, be sure to review!

**Fen:** Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2: A Single Life

Hey there everybody, it's your pal Fenikkusumaru again along with Serpentdragon, here to bring to you another chapter of Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin! I thank you guys for your patience and we're to reward you guys! So here it is!

Disclaimer: Same thing.

* * *

The next day had come by and all of us got up really early in the morning. After cooking a light breakfast for the entire battalion with the help of Koji and Rika, we all gathered all our camping, equipment, and weapons, putting them in the transports before heading east to look for more survivors.

Brenner was driving a huge Humvee with Lin in the front passenger seat and Koji, Rika, Will, Stauffenburg, Kabuto, and I were all in the back seats. Our vehicle was flanked by tanks to protect us.

"So, do we have any idea what exactly we're looking for?" I asked, looking at the window.

"Basically any sign that would indicate there's someone around," Koji said, adjusting his sunglasses.

"But given how the world is now, it's gonna be pretty hard to find survivors." Rika pointed out.

Kabuto, sitting on my shoulder, sighed as he looked out at the land and said, "It's really sad to see what Earth looks like right now. I wish I could've seen what it was like before the meteor shower."

"Well it _was_ pretty amazing." I said. "There were cities bustling, the grass was green, and people going about their day happily."

"Wow that _does_ sound amazing." Kabuto said.

"Yes, it does. But now…"

"Now it's, red like the blood spilled from 90% of the population," Koji lamented. "The change in color is something I often use in my songs."

"And it's something that we had to adapt to." Lin reminded us.

Stauffenburg, feeling awfully uncomfortable in the situation said, trying to lighten things up, "So… You guys wanna hear about the new project I'm working on?"

"What's that?" Will asked.

Smiling, he said, "I'm glad you asked!" Reaching into his briefcase, he pulled out a Tablet laptop to show blueprints for a motorcycle. "I call it a Rider Machine!"

"What does it do?" I asked.

"It's a specially designed motorcycle for each Rider. Just like the Riders, they have a Masked and Rider Form, each with its own abilities," the scientist explained. "Plus, it can handle all kinds of terrain!"

"How much of the project have you finished?" Will asked.

"I actually finished most of the components for the prototype, designed around Kabuto as he was the first ZECTer. They're in my Masked Rider Project equipment," Stauffenburg said, "But all I need is a motorcycle that can actually perform to the specifications needed for the Rider Machine to perform at peak performance."

"Well you won't be able to find any motorcycles in this desolate wasteland of a planet." Rika said.

Koji then said, "If we find one in working order somewhere, though, my platoon might be able to fix that bad boy up enough."

There was silence for a little while until Will, looking at the sky, said, "It's so strange, not seeing the sun. When will the sky return to normal?"

"Years, Decades? Who can say?" Lin said.

Will looked at Lin incredulously, "Decades?!"

Brenner chuckled from the driver's seat as he said, "Don't make that face, Will. We'll be okay. As long as there's life, there's hope. Ain't that right, Sergeant?"

Koji smiled and nodded as he said, "You bet, Captain!"

"As long as there's life…" Will muttered.

"Right," Brenner nodded. "The world we know is gone, but we can't give in to despair. Someday things will be set to right. We'll have peace, and the life we had will return. That's what I believe. That's why we must help everyone we can."

"Um…" Will said not understanding it.

"Keep it simple: never give up. If you can do that, anything is possible. Got it?"

Will smiled at that and proudly said, "Got it!"

Koji smiled as he said, "Alright, Will. You might just make it as one of the Wolves after all."

"You think so Staff Sergeant?" Will asked.

"Maybe… If you play your cards right, you could." Koji said.

I looked to Will and said, "Don't mind Koji. He just likes to tease people. It's his way of showing he likes you, as annoying as it can be."

"Oh, come on, bud, you don't know what you'd do without me."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" I waved off.

* * *

**(Cue Theme D–Technolife by UVERworld)**

**(Ienai itami kanashimi de kizutsuita kimi yo)** The scenery is a barren wasteland, with a sky that blotted out the sun. The camera pans slowly to the right as Kurogasa, with his back facing the camera, looks at the barren wasteland on top of a cliff.  
**(Kesenai kako mo seoiatteikou ikiru koto o nagedasanai de)** The camera then suddenly changes to a close up of Kurogasa's face before it went around his head, the camera's view being blocked momentarily when it reached the back of his head and when the camera finally circles to the side of his face, it showed Kurogasa as Kamen Rider Kabuto, before panning out showing him in his full armor. Looking up at the sky, a ray of light suddenly burst through the clouds shining on Kabuto before the screen goes white.

**([WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH] tsunaida kimi no te o)** The title Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin appears on the screen and just before the song enters the next phrase, the ZECTers flew, crawled, and hopped around the title from behind and jumped towards the screen before changing to the next scene.

**(Itsuka ushinatte shimau no kana)** Koji sits on the edge of his bed, sadly looking at his guitar on one side, his rifle on the other, as Gatack flew up and lands on his shoulder.  
**(Usurete yuku egao to kimi wo mamoritai kara)** Rika was in the medical wing of the base, sighing and wiping sweat off her brow as she tries to organize her medical supplies, Sasword crawling around on a table while Brenner, Lin, Isabella, and Will were discussing plans for their next move.

**(Hibiku~ boku wo yobu koe sae kare)** Kurogasa was cooking and Kabuto watched on his shoulder before Kurogasa noticed something from afar on the horizon.  
**(Toki ni sou kaze ni kakikesaretatte)** Drake and TheBee fly past him as we see what Kurogasa was looking out: a swarm of Salis Worms flanking Dr. Caulder with Admiral Greyfield, Waylon, showing up one end of the battlefield along with Tasha and Gage on another end and they sending out their troops alerting the 12th Platoon.

**(Kimi wo mitsu–ke–da–su)** Kurogasa grabs Kabuto and transforms into Kamen Rider Kabuto, before casting off his armor and charging towards Dr. Caulder.

**(Ienai itami kanashimi de kizutsuita kimi mou)** Dr. Caulder snaps his fingers and Kamen Rider Punch and Kick Hopper appeared out of nowhere and jumped towards Kabuto for an attack only for the latter to dodge before going to attack them.  
**(Waraenai nante, hito kirai nante kotoba sou iwanaide)** Koji transforms into Kamen Rider Gatack and leads the Tech Platoon with their heavy weapons attacking some of the Salis Worms as Brenner transforms into Kamen Rider TheBee and he, Lin, and Will attack the rest of the forces.  
**(Mienai mirai ni okoru koto subete ni imi ga aru kara)** Rika and David "Deadeye" Stevens transforms into Kamen Rider Sasword and Kamen Rider Drake respectively and attack some of the Salis Worms.  
**(Ima wa sono mama de ii, kitto kizukeru toki ga kuru darou [WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH])** As Kurogasa battles Punch Hopper and Kick Hopper, Caulder surprisingly joins in and transforms into Kamen Rider Caucasus, going to punch Kurogasa, only for the latter to dodge and he and Caluder stared each other down.

**(You and Me, two have spoken.)** The Hyper ZECTer appears from the distortion of time and Kurogasa grabs it to become Hyper Kabuto.

**([WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH] Itsuka wakariaeru kara)** Kurogasa then grabs the Perfect ZECTer and he and Caucasus leap at each other, their attack causing a huge flash of light. When the light fades, we see Kurogasa, Koji, Rika, Brenner, Will, Lin, Isabella, Tasha, Gage, and Stauffenburg looking out into the sunset, the ZECTers with them as well before the song ends.

* * *

Chapter 2: A Single Life

We soon arrived at a desolate ruined city and set up camp on the outskirts of it. Koji and his Tech Platoon had set out to the ruined city to look for survivors. Meanwhile, as promised Lin was training me in military hand–to–hand combat. …However…

"WHOA! OW!"

…I was getting my butt kicked by Lin.

"And that is why you _never_ let your opponent get behind you." Lin said smugly as she had me on my knees, holding arm behind my back painfully as she pushed down on my shoulder with one foot.

"Duly noted…" I winced.

Lin then let go of me and helped me back onto my feet. "Alright, get set up. Let's try it again."

"Yeah, okay…" I said as I got into my stance again. She then got into her stance and charged at me.

Lin was about to land a punch at me, but I was able to block the punch and sidestepped while I'm at it. I then crouched down and attempted to sweep one of my legs and trip her to get her off her feet, but she jumped to avoid it.

"Better!" She shouted as she landed a few feet away from me before coming at me again with a flurry of jabs. I blocked some punches while sidestepping others and after a while, I counterattacked with a few jabs of my own while adding a few kicks.

Lin, though, finally managed to catch my right leg in one side kick I tried and then delivered a powerful punch to my inner thigh.

"GH," I winced in pain. Lin saw the chance and picked me up, throwing me over and pinned me to the ground.

"Of course, don't let how good you're doing go to your head." Lin advised.

"I'm not." I smirked. "I'm just seeing an opportunity!" I then caught Lin off guard when I swept my leg to trip her then pin _her_ to the ground with me on top of her. Wait… that didn't sound right.

Lin looked up at me as she said, "Good… because in a fight, you need to take every opportunity to win."

*BAM!*

"OOOOH," I shouted as I felt Lin slam her knee into my "best pals," throwing me off her.

Chuckling, Lin got up and said with a smirk, "_Any_ opportunity." Looking to the nearest medic, she said, "Get an ice pack for him?"

"Yes ma'am!" The medic said before going to get the ice pack.

"Ow…" I wheezed.

Lin smiled at me sympathetically as she said, "Sorry about that. I just wanted to make a point that in a fight in this world there are no rules."

"You certainly made _that_ obvious…" I got out. The medic then returned with an icepack for me, handing it to me, as I silently thanked him.

"Are you okay?" Lin asked as I slowly sat up.

"I'll be fine…" I said as I placed the pack between my legs, "Hah, hah, hah, hah, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

She then helped walk me over to a fallen beam from some building to sit down on. "There, that should be less painful for you."

"Thanks." I panted.

"No problem." Lin said.

Just then, Lin took out her radio as she heard Koji say over it, **["LT, this is Tech Lead. I think we have a sign of survivors, over."]**

"Copy that Shinamori. Get those survivors out of there."

**["We're trying to, ma'am,"]** Koji replied as he said, **["But we've got a bit of an issue. My men have the equipment to get rid of this debris, but we lack the man power. Could use some reinforcements, over."]**

"Alright, Captain Brenner, Kurogasa, and I will be over there shortly."

**["Copy that. We'll see you soon. Also, I might suggest bringing Will. It'd be a good chance for him to see what combat engineers can do,"]** Koji suggested.

"I'll talk to Captain Brenner about that, over and out." Lin said before turning off the radio and looking to me. "You feel okay to walk?"

"I think so." I said before standing up. I was a bit wobbly, but I stood my ground.

Lin smirked as she said, "You got spirit I'll say that." She then helped to steady me as she said, "C'mon, let's go."

"Right," I nodded.

* * *

We arrived at the place where Koji and his men were. Seeing us, Koji waved to us slightly as he said, "Over here! It seems like we got someone down here!"

"Let's hope they're okay." I said, as Lin, Brenner, and I along with Will arrived at the scene.

"Good work Shinamori." Brenner nodded.

"Thank you, sir." Koji said before turning to me and Will. "Kurogasa, Will, I can use some help."

"Sure thing man," I said. "C'mon Will."

"Right," Will said, following with me after Koji as we went to the spot with some power tools. The three of us began cutting away at some of the debris as the rest of Koji's men did in other spots.

Luckily, we found more civilians alive, buried under the rubble and took them in, while some of us only found corpses. Just then, though, Will, looking down a hole we uncovered, shouted, "Hey! There's someone over there! Hold on! I'm coming!"

"Whoa hold on, slow down, Will!" I said, as I went to help him out.

A few of Koji's men followed after us and, looking down at the hole, Will found we saw a girl around our age lying at the bottom. The girl had long, light blue hair with bright yellow eyes, a white dress with yellow straps making an X across the collar, a black choker around her neck, a long blue pendant, purple and red tie–dye leggings, and black–brown high heeled ankle boots.

A corporal from Tech Platoon asked, "Is… Is she alive?"

"I don't know." I said.

"Well, let's get her out of there!" Will insisted.

Koji, who just arrived after us, looked to Sergeant Rusk saying, "Sergeant, go get the second jeep. It's got a tow cable on it. Drive it here. I'll lower myself and, Will down and get her out."

"You got it, Boss," Rusk replied as he ran off to get the jeep.

Quickly, Rusk came over with the jeep, handing harnesses to Koji and Will. Once they slipped into them, Rusk hooked them up to the tow cable's hook and they repelled down into the hole. Carefully, they picked up the girl and, once Koji tugged on the rope, signaling he wanted Rusk to bring them up, the crank reversed direction and pulled the two up.

"That's it, Rusk, nice and easy!" Koji said.

Finally, the three of them were back top side. Setting the girl down gently on the ground, Will examined the girl up close as the corporal again asked, "So, is she alright? Do we need a medic?"

"I think so." Will said. "Her breathing is really faint. Come on! We've got to get her back to camp!"

"I'll call for a medic!" The corporal shouted as he ran off to get help.

Another soldier, a private, then said to Will, "It ain't worth the trouble, kid. I doubt she's long for this world."

"I'm not giving up! If you won't help, I'll carry her myself!"

"Are you serious?" The soldier asked incredulously.

"That's enough, Private!" Koji shouted at the soldier, making him back down.

"He's right!" I shouted in agreement. "As long as there's life, there's hope, just like Capt. Brenner says!"

"Open your eyes…" Will, said to the unconscious girl. "I know there's not much to see, but you can't give up. You're alive, you know? And where there's life, there's hope."

There were a few moments of silence…

Then suddenly… she opened her eyes!

"…Who… Who are you?"

"She's awake!" I gasped.

Will smiled widely as he said, "Yes! You heard me! You're alive!"

"P–Please… Tell me… Who are you?" The girl asked.

"I'm Will. I'm with Brenner's Wolves. What's your name?"

"I… I don't know."

"Huh?" Koji and I asked confused.

Looking to all of us, in a mix of confusion and fear, the girl replied, "I… I don't remember. I don't remember anything."

"You think she's got amnesia Koji?" I whispered.

Whispering back, Koji nodded, replying, "Sounds that way. It's the only thing I can think of."

"I… I don't remember. I don't remember anything." The girl said.

"Ok, Ok, don't worry. You've been through a lot. Everything's going to be fine."

"…All right."

I then piped in, saying, "We should get her back to the base, let Rika get a look at her to make sure she is okay."

"Right," Will, nodded.

Meanwhile, Brenner and Lin were at another part of the site tending to the other survivors until he got a call from the radio, **["Captain Brenner! Do you read? This is Dr. Stauffenburg! We have a problem!"]** Stauffenburg cried out in the radio.

Grabbing his radio, Brenner replied, "I read you, Doctor. What's the word?"

**["I detected a swarm of Salis Worms a few clicks from your position and are headed towards you and the search party!"]**

Brenner's eyes widened. "Worms? On their way here?! How long do we have before they reach our position?"

**["Five minutes, at most! Kabuto is on his way there!"]**

Brenner nodded. "Right, I'll alert Kurogasa and my men!" Looking back to us, he shouted, "Guys, we got Worms on their way! Kurogasa, Kabuto is on his way! Get ready!"

"Aw man, Worms?!" I complained.

"Not what I had in mind." Koji gritted.

"All nonmilitary personnel fall back! This is now a combat zone!" Brenner ordered. "Get that tank up there and block the road! Koji, I want half of your men to get the survivors out of here!"

Koji nodded as he said, "You got it, Captain! Alright, Platoons A and D, with me! Platoons B and C, get any survivors out of here!" He then looked to me. "You ready?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

"What's happening?" The girl asked.

"Don't worry, you're safe. You're with the Rubinelle Army now." Will assured as he picked her up bridal style.

"Rubinelle…" The girl pondered, as if she'd trying to remember something. "Rubinelle is one of the two main countries on this continent. At the last known date, the army employed 1,296,973 men."

"What the…" I said surprised.

"How do you know that?" Will asked surprised too.

"Rubinelle and its neighbor have been at war for a century." The girl continued. "Despite several armistices, the fighting has never truly ended. Ten percent of Rubinelle's GDP is expended on weaponry and research. The last recorded assessment of its military strength was "Excellent"."

Will blinked at the girl in amazement. "How did you know that?"

"I… I don't know. I don't understand." The girl said.

Huh? Okay, this doesn't make any sense. She doesn't know her name, yet she's all statistics on the Rubinelle Army? Who _is_ this girl?

"AIBOU," Kabuto shouted as he flew into sight, distracting me from my question. Flying over to me, he said, "I'm here! You ready to beat down some Worms?"

"Huh?" I asked startled before saying, "Oh, y–yeah I'm ready!"

"ZECT…" The girl murmured.

All of us looked to the girl then in amazement. "You know ZECT!?"

"ZECT is one of the primary weapons providers for the Rubinelle Armed Forces, developing some of its most advanced weaponry, including the ZECTers of Native origin."

What in the–

"Okay, this girl is starting to freak me out." Koji said a bit scared.

Brenner said, "We can't afford to worry about this right now, Staff Sergeant! Will, get the girl out of here! Koji, get your men into position! And Kurogasa… suit up!"

"Yes sir!" I nodded then placed the Rider Belt around my waist. "Alright, Kabuto, let's do this!"

"Yosha, Ikuze aibou," Kabuto cheered.

Kabuto then flew into my hand and I caught him with my hand on his underside as my right arm crossed over my body and shouted, "Henshin!" before sliding him into place on the Rider Belt.

**HENSHIN!**

The hexagonal panels began forming all over my body, forming my body armor as I entered Masked Form as Kamen Rider Kabuto. I immediately got into position with Koji's men as we saw the Salis Worms come into view.

"At the ready, boys," Koji shouted.

"Yes sir!" The soldiers shouted aiming their guns at them.

Giving me a thumbs–up, Koji said, loading his shotgun before putting it on his back as he grabbed his M–16, "We got you covered, buddy."

"Thanks." I said before turning to the Salis Worm army. "I'm going in!" I shouted before charging at the army.

"Open fire!" Koji then shouted as his men began firing on the Worms with their automatic rifles, their bullets buzzing past me as I grabbed my Kunai Gun, shooting as well as I charged forward. One of the Worms I hit rolled across the ground before hoping back up and charging at me.

"No you don't!" I shouted before firing my bullets at the Salis Worm that charged at me making sparks fly off.

Meanwhile, Koji dodged under the claw of a Worm that was slashing at him before blasting it with his shotgun. "Eat this!"

*BANG!*

The shot from his shotgun sent the Salis Worm flying a few feet.

Thanks to Koji and his men holding off the other four, I could focus on the one challenging me. Switching my gun into axe mode, I ran towards the Worm and chopped my axe down across its face. Sparks flew and I continued to slash the Salis Worm in front of me until it finally exploded in green flames. "Haha, I got one! One down: four to go!" I shouted as I turned to help Koji's soldiers with the other four Worms.

* * *

_Meanwhile, as the fight was going on, The Beast and his men were coming up on a craggy hill from the outskirts of the ruined city and noticed the fight going on._

_"Heh heh heh… Looks like my old friends, the Wolves," Beast grinned as he looked through his binoculars. Spying Koji, he then said, "And even better, that punk who almost killed me. Now I can finally put him six feet under." He then looked behind to see his army ready and waiting. "Alright, you roaches, move out! We got us some Wolves to put down!"_

_All the soldiers shouted, "YEAAAAHHHH!" Some of them hopped into the three tanks the Beast brought with him while the rest ran in front, beside, and behind, charging downwards._

_"Heh, heh, heh… I'm so gonna enjoy this…" The Beast chuckled._

* * *

As we continued to fight with the Worms, Brenner and Lin coming with a squad from 1st Platoon to help us out, we had destroyed a second Salis Worm.

"Keep firing! Keep firing!" Brenner shouted as he used a 9mm pistol to shoot at a third Salis Worm.

Rusk then, with his teeth, pulled the pin from a grenade, "Fire in the hole!" Lobbing the grenade, it flew through the air, hitting the ground as several of the soldiers hit the deck, sending the other two Salis Worms flying.

"Alright, let's do this!" I said before flipping Kabuto's horn slightly. Blue electricity crackled throughout my entire armor as the segmented armor on my arms, the armor on my chest, and the armor on my helmet spread out while steam hissed from it. "Cast Off!" I shouted, before flipping the horn completely, making Kabuto's gold side of his horn prominent and the shell of his body open up.

**CAST OFF!**

The pieces of armor for Masked Form came, flying off me, bits of it hitting the three Worms as they tried to get back up as I switched into Rider Form, the beetle horn coming up and bisect the lens.

**CHANGE: BEETLE!**

"Alright, time to Clock Up!" I said before pressing the Clock Up pad on the side of my belt.

**CLOCK UP!**

My whole world suddenly slowed down and I saw everything in slow motion. Looking to the Salis Worms that were trying to get up while in slow motion, I ran towards and gave them a few punches and kicks.

Kabuto let off an excited laugh as he said, "Nice job, Kurogasa! You're already getting the hang of this!"

"Yeah, I guess, but I still got a long way to go!" I said before switching my Kunai Gun to dagger mode and slashed two of the three Salis Worms. In real time, the Worms flipped through the air with sparks from the punches and kicks as the two I slashed exploded from the slashes in green flames.

"Alright, that's four down and one to go!" I cheered.

**CLOCK OVER!**

When I slowed back into real-time, Brenner and Koji both shot me a thumbs up. "Nice work, Kurogasa!" Brenner shouted.

"Way to go, bro! Now let's squash this last bug!" Koji shouted as he switched back to his M–16.

"You just read my mind!" I grinned behind my mask, but then…

*RATATATATATATATATATATATA!*

"Hahahahaha, I'm ba~ck!"

Looking up, much to our chagrin, charging forward in a dust cloud, was the Beast and his bandits. "Dang it!" Koji shouted.

Brenner growled, spitting on the ground angrily. Looking to me, he said, "Kurogasa, can you finish off this last Worm!?"

"You got it Boss!" I said with a two–finger salute, before turning to the Worm who was… already molting?! Oh crap!

A long, jagged crack formed along the Worm's exoskeleton as it began to molt. Each second, more cracks formed upon.

"I gotta destroy it before it evolves!" I shouted, turning my Kunai Gun back to axe mode.

"Kurogasa, no," Kabuto shouted, but it was too late.

I shouted, "HEE–YAAAAAAH!" as I slammed my axe down, only to be sent flying as my blow destroyed the Worm's exoskeleton, finishing its evolution.

When I could finally see it, I was disgusted. It had big red ruby eyes with a long pointed sucker. Its thorax–torso was black like coal as were its arms and legs which were covered in white stripes like a reverse zebra. Its wings were translucent silver and on its arms were each three curved blades. As for the sucker, I could have sworn I saw in it a circle of vampire fangs. This was the Mosquito Worm.

"Yabai…" Kabuto muttered.

"Man and I thought the Locust Worm was disgusting." I said. All of a sudden, he disappeared in a blur. "Oh crap, it clocked pp!" I said before hitting the Clock Up pad again.

**CLOCK UP!**

I ran towards the Worm and slashed at it with my axe, only for it to fly up and dodge my attack, slashing at my head with the blades on its right arm. Sparks flew as I groaned in pain, falling to the ground.

"Ow…" I groaned.

"You okay aibou?" Kabuto asked.

"Yeah… peachy…" I groaned.

"No time to get peachy! Here it comes!" Kabuto warned.

Looking in the direction of the buzzing, I saw the Worm come flying at me, slashing its blades against themselves threateningly. "Wait for it… Just like Lin taught me…" I said as I watched, "NOW!" I then dropped to my back just in time to avoid the slash from both sets of arm blades as I kicked up, slamming both my feet into its stomach as I slammed it head first into the ground.

I then jumped back to gain some distance.

"Nice work!" Kabuto praised.

"Thanks!" I said. "And I think it's time we finished this!"

**1!**

**2!**

**3!**

I then pulled Kabuto's horn back to reveal its red side, charging up my power before I slammed the horn back down, revealing the yellow side again as blue electricity began charging in my chest and horn.

**RIDER KICK!**

But as soon as that happened, the Mosquito Worm… flew away?!

"What the…?" I said as I watched the thing fly away. All the energy I charged up dissipated as I watched the Worm flee. "That's weird."

Kabuto detached from me and my armor disappeared into motes of hexagon energy before being absorbed into the belt. "What the heck! We're about to finish off and then it flew away!" Kabuto fumed.

It must have sensed it was going to get squashed," I said as I watched the spot the Mosquito Worm disappeared into. Looking to Kabuto, I then said in shock. "Oh no everyone! I need to get back to the others. They're still fighting the Beast and his men!"

"They can take care of themselves! We need to go after the Worm!" Kabuto exclaimed.

"But–"

*BOOM!*

Kabuto and I went flying as a mortar exploded not too far from us. Luckily, I didn't get any shrapnel wounds, but _man_, did that hurt, hitting the ground after that. Pushing myself up, I said, "We can worry about the Worm later, Kabuto! The others need us now!"

"Doooooh…" Kabuto said. "Fine, but we better be quick about it!"

I nodded as I grabbed Kabuto out of the air, "Deal!" I then slid him back onto my belt to transform again, "Henshin!"

**HENSHIN!**

The hexagons appeared and formed into my armor once again before I ran to help Koji and the others.

* * *

During the firefight, the Beast roared as he saw Koji finally during the battle. "Kill anyone of them you want, boys! But leave that one to me! He nearly took my head, so I'm going to take his!"

His men near nodded as they continued firing while the Beast then took out a grenade launcher and shot at Koji.

"Boss watch out!" Rusk shouted as he pushed Koji aside, and when he did–

*BOOM!*

Rusk expected to find himself, dead, only to find that I had fallen down in front of him, the front of my armor in Masked Form blackened from taking the RPG hit. "Ugh… That hurt… more than I expected…"

"Kurogasa," Koji cried out.

"You okay?" I asked Rusk.

Rusk nodded as he got back up, scrambling for his rifle. "Y–Yeah…! Thanks, Kururugi!"

"No problem…"

"What the– What kind of freak are you?!" The Beast roared.

Turning to the Beast, I said, turning my Kunai Gun into gun mode, "You can call me Kabuto: Kamen Rider Kabuto."

"What?" The Beast asked confused. "Bah, whatever, it doesn't matter to me! You're gonna be like all the others: DEAD!" He shouted before launching another grenade.

Whipping my gun forward, I fired two laser blasts at the RPG, exploding it in midair. "Go, Koji!" I shouted.

"Right," He shouted back with a nod, running forward as he began firing towards the Beast.

"Think again you fool!" The Beast shouted before… a tank rolled out from out of nowhere and fired at us?!

Koji and I leapt out of the way of the blast as it exploded, sending us further back than we would have just by jumping. "HAHAHA, Didn't see _that_ coming, did ya, punks!?"

"Man, we ain't gonna get nowhere with that tank firing at us!" Koji gritted.

I looked to my friend and said, "If I cover you, can you destroy or disable that tank?"

"I can do that."

"Good." I nodded, before coming out of hiding. I flipped Kabuto's horn slightly and the armor spread itself out, ready to eject. "Cast off!" I shouted then flipped the horn completely to the other side and his shell opened up.

**CAST OFF!**

The armor shot off of me, sending in all directions before the horn appendage rose up and bisected the lens.

**CHANGE: BEETLE!**

Now in my faster, more streamlined Rider Form, I began running, distracting the Beast and his men as well as the tank, taking potshots at them with my Kunai Gun. While they were so focused on me, Koji began to sneak through the debris towards the tank, setting up a det–pack as he did.

"What's wrong? Am I moving too slowly?" I taunted. "Perhaps I should move faster!"

The Beast roared angrily as he loaded a new clip of ammo into his AK-47 and fired wildly at me. "ERGH, HOLD STILL SO I CAN CRUSH YOU, COCKROACH!"

Koji had finally managed to get to the tank. Looking back at me, he smirked as he said to himself, "Nice job buddy. Now it's my turn." Climbing up onto the tank, he knocked on the top hatch. When the gunner opened it up, Koji grinned with a wave and said, "Special delivery!" He then dropped the demo–charge down into the tank's cockpit, slamming the hatch lid down, hitting the gunner on the head. Hopping off of it, he then ran to cover as the tank exploded.

"What the–" The Beast shouted turning around to see the explosion.

"Pay attention!" I shouted while I was already in front of him. When he turned around to see me–

*POW!*

I kicked him where the sun doesn't shine.

"YEOOOOOW," The Beast roared in pain as his eyes nearly popped out of their eye sockets, causing him to drop to his knees, dropping his rifle as he cupped his family jewels.

"Heh, right out of Lin's book," I said to myself, thinking back to my earlier combat lesson. However, before I could deal with the Beast, several of his men opened fire on me and their combined fire forced me to pull back. "But where's Koji?"

Meanwhile, Koji found himself in a bit of a bind. After I knocked their leader out, several of his soldiers had gathered to keep me pinned, which by extension kinda pinned Koji down as he knew he couldn't run fast enough to get past them. "Dang… What do I do now?" Then, looking over his shoulder, he saw something in the back of a pick–up truck for the Beast's forces. "Eh?" Crawling over to it carefully, he pulled the tarp of to reveal: a motorcycle, _'No way!' _He thought. _'Please, still be working, baby!'_

Thankfully the key was in the ignition and when he turned the key…

*VROOM!*

"Alright, KAWABONGA," He shouted as he revved it up before riding right off the truck bed. He then rode straight down the hill. The Beast's soldiers as they saw him ride straight for them leapt out of the way as he rode off a rock and flew through the air, "WOOHOO!"

"What the–" I said surprised.

Koji then shot me a mock salute as he rode past and shouted, "Let's get out of here buddy! Mission accomplished!"

"I like the sound of that." I said as I stood up and got on the motorcycle behind Koji. Once he felt my armored arms around him, he revved up the motorcycle again and then drove off to join the rest of the unit.

"Grrrr… get back here!" The Beast roared, but it was no use.

* * *

Koji and I laughed as we rode away, Kabuto hopping off my belt as I detransformed. Before long, we were home free and back at the base. "HAHAHA, Did you see the look on his face!?" Koji asked.

"I sure did!" I laughed too. "The best part was when I kicked where the sun doesn't shine!"

Koji and I fist bumped as we hopped off the motorcycle. My buddy then said, "Yeah… Of course, now the Beast probably has an even _bigger_ price on my head."

"And I think he's gonna be going after me too." I added.

"Yeah, after hitting him in his manhood and for helping me out, he's probably gonna be interested in killing you, too."

"But right now, he isn't our problem!" Kabuto suddenly intervened, catching our attention. "That Mosquito Worm is still on the loose!"

Koji looked to me in shock as he said, "The Worm escaped!?"

"Yeah…" I sighed. "Just when I was about to do the Rider Kick it flew away."

Koji frowned thoughtfully as he said, "Well, we can't do anything about it now. But I'll let Capt. Brenner know. For now, let's go find out what happened with that survivor."

"Right," I nodded.

* * *

Koji and I headed to the infirmary where Brenner, Lin, and Will were waiting as Rika finished her check up on the girl we found. "So, how is she?"

"Just a few bruises here and there, but other than that, she's fine." Rika said.

"Find out anything new about her?" Koji asked.

"Other than the fact that she has amnesia and that she somehow knows all the military stuff, which by the way freaked me out a little bit, no."

"Hmmm…" I said as I thought, feeling bad for the girl.

"How did it go out there, boys?" Brenner asked as he, Lin, and Will joined us.

"We routed out the enemy." I said.

"And we got ourselves a new motorcycle!" Koji added.

Stauffenburg, who despite being all the way down the hall, heard Koji's statement and gave out a huge "HOORAY!" as he charged down the hall. "Excellent! Now, I can use it to begin construction on my first Rider Machine!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa easy there Speedy, calm down," Koji said, holding him back.

Stauffenburg took a few deep breaths as he said, "Sorry, just got really excited."

Kabuto scoffed. "That's your excuse for everything! Do you know how many times you nearly fried my motherboard because of your 'excitement!?'"

"Pfft, you're fine."

"Say that to the _other_ ZECTers!"

Stauffenburg grumbled as he tried to catch Kabuto, only to have the mechanical beetle easily fly out of his hands, giving him a raspberry as he flew about.

"Okay Kabuto calm down." I sighed as I finally caught him. "You need to relax."

Kabuto then crawled onto my shoulder as he said, "See, this is why I like you, Kurogasa. You can actually be calm."

"I _AM_ CALM!" Stauffenburg shouted before getting the Vulcan Nerve Pinch from Rika, knocking him out.

"Guys, yelling and screaming isn't what my patient needs right now."

"Heh, heh warui…" Kabuto chuckled sheepishly.

Rika smiled then as she said, "Daijobu." Becoming a little more serious, she then looked to Brenner and said, "Captain, the girl is asking to see Will."

Lin looked confused as she said, "Why Will?"

"He was the one who showed the most concern when we rescued her. She probably feels safest with him," Rika explained.

Koji snickered at that, and I knew what that meant, "Koji, don't you tease him." I frowned.

Koji smiled at me and said, "Oh don't worry, buddy, I won't. See, as an academy cadet that means Will, will, one day be an officer, so I can't. Besides, I doubt his reactions would be as fun as yours."

My eye twitched at that, "You wouldn't dare…"

Koji winked at me as he said, "Care to find out?"

"Koji, don't you do it…"

Just then, Koji winced as he felt Rika's nails dig into his ear. "Iteiteiteiteite, Okay, okay, okay!"

"That's what I thought." Rika scoffed before she let go. As Koji nursed his ear, Will, went into the room to see the girl.

"Geez, you really need to ease up on those pinches…" Koji winced.

Rika waved off the comment dismissively. "Or maybe you need to toughen up, Soldier Boy."

"Ugh…" Koji groaned. This is gonna be a long day…

* * *

_"How are you feeling?" Will asked as he approached the girl._

_"I'm… okay…" The girl said._

_"That's good to hear." Will smiled. "For a while there, I thought you were going to die."_

_The girl nodded as she continued to say nothing as she sat on the bed. Cautiously, Will sat down next to her, putting a uniform jacket over her shoulders as she seemed cold. "Don't worry… We'll take care of you as long as you're with us."_

_The girl smiled gently as she nodded at that._

_Will smiled as well, glad that the girl seemed okay. After a few moments of silence, he said, "Hmmm… still… we should think of something to call you, at least until we learn what your real name is."_

_"We can… do that later…" The girl said before she yawned a bit. "I need… sleep…" She then looked to Will and said, "But… I just… wanted to say… thank you, for saving me."_

_"You're welcome." Will said._

_As the girl fell asleep, Rika came in the examining room and said, "We have an extra tent she can stay in. Could you help me get her into the wheelchair so I can wheel her over?"_

_"Sure, I can do that." Will said, with with a nod. Gently, Will scooped her into his arms and placed into the wheelchair. Rika then began to roll her out, but a military nurse instead offered to do it._

_"I'll take over from here. You have other patients to look after." The nurse said. Rika nodded and thanked the nurse as she rolled the girl out of the infirmary._

* * *

_While the soldiers of the Rubinelle Army were busy moving about, doing their work to keep things going on the base, the Mosquito Worm was hiding off in the distance, the tongue inside his long sucker licking the outside of his sucker as he looked at all the machines. Making buzzing noises, it crept up towards the machines while evading the soldiers from spotting it._

_Quickly flying up over the fence, it crawled over to one of the generators and, attaching its sucker to the generator, it began to suck the energy out of it, causing electrical fluctuations to occur._

_"Hey you, what are you doing over there?!" A soldier shouted._

_When the Worm heard this, it detached from the generator and flew into the soldier, knocking him to the ground as it assimilated his form._

_"What the–" the original soldier got out surprised._

_The Worm quickly turned into the soldier, smiling evilly before returning to its Worm form. It then grabbed the soldier's head and with one powerful twist broke his neck. It then went back to sucking out the energy from the generator._

_This was not gonna be good…_

* * *

Back in the main part of the base, Koji, Brenner, Lin, Will, Rika, and I having left the infirmary, we became extremely confused as the lights and the other electrical devices began flickering on and off.

"Huh?" Will said confused.

"It looks like we got somewhat of a power outage." Brenner noticed.

"That's weird," Koji said, looking at the lights. "Captain, want me to get one of my guys to check it out?"

"It's probably nothing." Brenner waved off. That's when _all_ the lights suddenly went off.

"And now that nothing became something." I said.

"Yeah, nice going jinxing us," Kabuto commented. Brenner shot Kabuto a look, making the ZECTer back down.

Suddenly, we heard the sound of screaming, gunfire, and explosions from outside.

"We're under attack!" Will exclaimed.

Kabuto looked to me and said, "Aibou, the Worm! That must be it!"

"Are you sure?" I gasped.

"I'm positive!" Kabuto said. "That Mosquito Worm must be the one that sucked up all the power in this here joint!"

"Dang it," I shouted.

Koji looked to me as he said, "Shall we squash this bug for good, buddy?"

"Yeah, let's do it!" I said. "Let's go Kabuto!"

"Oh yeah, it's time to squash that Worm!" Kabuto cheered before flying into my hand.

I caught him and shouted, "Henshin!" and slid him on my belt.

**HENSHIN!**

The red hexagons quickly covered me as I entered Masked Form, Koji running after me outside.

"Sir, we should get the rest of the troops out there to help!" Lin suggested.

With a nod, Brenner said, "Right! Mobilize all of Alpha and Bravo Companies, and keep Charlie on standby!"

"Yes sir!" Lin nodded.

"What can I do?" Will asked.

"You can protect that girl. She's your responsibility now."

Will was a little shocked by that, "M–My responsibility?"

"Yes, your responsibility. Keep her safe. Have Rika help you out." Brenner said before he and Lin ran off.

Will nodded hesitantly as he replied, "Yes, Sir." He then grabbed an M–9 pistol and ran to the girl's tent.

"Hey, wait up!" Rika shouted going after him.

* * *

When we arrived outside, things had gotten pretty crazy. Thanks to the energy boost the Mosquito Worm got from the generator and a few other electrical devices on the base, it had grown stronger, its body having gotten bigger, its arm-blades getting larger and sharper, and its speed having increased, even when not Clocked Up.

"Whoa, that thing's on electrical steroids!" Koji cried out.

Kurogasa, even clocked up, I don't know if we can keep up with that thing!" Kabuto replied.

"We'll find a way Kabuto." I said. "We just gotta find a way."

**["I might just have it!"]** Stauffenburg said over Koji's radio.

"Huh? Dr. Stauffenburg?" Koji said, bringing the radio to his mouth to talk into it. "Is that you?"

**["You bet it is! And thanks to my nonstop work, I have my Rider Machine prototype ready!"]** Stauffenburg replied excitedly.

Koji and I looked at each other in disbelief. "You really have the Rider Machine done?" I asked.

I could practically hear the muscles and bones in Stauffenburg's neck move as he nodded over the radio, clearly excited. **["Yes! If you Clock Up and hurry here quickly, you should be able to get it and be back on the field in time to finish off the Worm!"]**

"Alright then, I'll see ya in a couple minutes!" I said. "Let's go Kabuto!"

"You got it, aibou!" Kabuto said excitedly as I flipped his horn slightly and the parts of my armor began opening to Cast Off.

"Cast Off!"

**CAST OFF!**

As the bits of my outer armor detached and I entered Rider Form.

**CHANGE: BEETLE!**

I then tapped Kabuto to enter Clock Up mode.

**CLOCK UP!**

The world slowed down to a near standstill, the only one still moving aside from me being the Worm. But due to the energy it absorbed from the generator, it was moving slightly faster than me. Luckily, it was too distracted, eating the energy from another generator to notice me running past.

"I better make it quick." I said as I started running to where Dr. Stauffenburg is at.

Quickly, I arrived at the workshop Stauffenburg was using. Exiting Clock Up mode, I went over to him and said, "Alright, Doc, is it ready?"

"You bet it is! Meet your new ride: The Kabuto Extender!"

The Kabuto Extender was the same Honda CBR1000RR that Koji had gotten. Its front half was heavily protected like a shell having a red beetle horn on it. It was red while the back half was silver. "Whoa! This is amazing!" I said as I examined the Rider Machine.

"I knew you'd like it." Stauffenburg grinned. As I got onto it, Stauffenburg then explained, "Just like you, it has two forms: Masked Form, which is what it is currently in, being more defended, and its Ex Mode, which helps for finishing off enemies."

I revved up the engine a bit before nodding to the doctor as I said, "Alright, thanks, Doc. I'll put this to good use!"

"I'm sure you will. Now get going! Who knows what that Worm's doing now?!"

I shot him a thumbs–up as I revved the engine and rode out of the garage, heading back to the battle. The Worm was no longer in Clock Up mode, sucking out energy from a third generator with several of the soldiers on the ground, dead or knocked out, I couldn't tell. Koji was firing at it with his M–16, but by this point, the Worm was completely unaffected.

"Oi, aibou, let's test out your new toy!" Kabuto suggested.

"My thoughts exactly, aibou, let's go!" I shouted as I rode towards the Worm. Grabbing my Kunai Gun, I raised it and began shooting at the Worm, causing it to stop its draining of energy and then, after switching it into axe form, I slashed at the monster, the power of my slash combined with the speed of the Kabuto Extender sending the Worm flying halfway across the base.

"Yeah, take that!" I cheered.

"Whew… that's a sweet ride man!" Koji whistled.

"Thanks!" I shouted with a two finger salute as I turned around and rode towards the Mosquito Worm again as it tried to get back up.

"No you don't!" I said, before I pressed a button on the Kabuto Extender.

**CAST OFF!**

Suddenly, the front part of the Kabuto Extender popped off as the front wheel split in two and spread apart. Then, a giant lance/spear–like weapon came sticking out the front of the motorcycle. "Whoa! Looks like we're going jousting, Kabuto!"

"Yeah, it does! Let's skewer that bug!" Kabuto said excited.

I then hit the Clock Up button on Kabuto.

**CLOCK UP!**

"Alright, big and ugly, it's time to skewer ya!" I said as I revved the engine more towards the Mosquito Worm as the spear like horn charged up with energy and… my motorcycle started to hover?

"What the– We're floating, Kabuto!"

"Yeah, in Clock Up mode, it looks like the Extender can defy gravity!"

"That's even better!" I grinned. "Alright, let's do this!" I said before going at full speed. The Mosquito Worm noticed me and tried to get away, but I wasn't gonna let it. The Mosquito Worm spread its wings and flew into the air, trying to fly away. But as I let out a yell, I pushed the engine of the Kabuto Extender to the max and, with the energy all around the lance I impaled the Worm, flying right through it as blue electricity began covering its body before it exploded in green flames.

"WOHOO, GOOD JOB AIBOU!" Kabuto cheered.

"Yeah, thanks!" I smiled.

I then landed the Kabuto Extender to the ground and after that-

**CLOCK OVER!**

When I landed, the Kabuto Extender returned to Masked Form and immediately, the soldiers still alive began to clap and cheer for me as they came over to congratulate me.

"Hoo–rah, you squashed that bug!" One soldier praised.

"Yeah, that thing was toast!" A second added.

Koji ran over to me and high–fived me as I de–henshined. "Dude, that was incredible! I have _got_ to get me one of those puppies!"

"Yeah, if you can _find_ one that is," I chuckled.

He just chuckled at that as Rika, Brenner, and Lin approached me. "Kurogasa, that was incredible!" Rika said as she hugged me.

"Heh, heh, thanks Rika." I chuckled, hugging her back.

Lin then said with a smirk, "I'm impressed, Kururugi. One training session, and you're already getting tossed around less."

"Uh… thanks." I blushed a bit.

"Oooooh, do I hear the sound of a heart fluttering?" Koji teased.

"Koji~" I growled.

Brenner then came forward before anything else could come from my friend's mouth as he said, "Way to work out there, kid. You made the whole battalion proud out there."

"Thanks Captain." I smiled, but then realized something. "By the way, where're Will and the girl?"

"Will's been with her in the tent we gave her to stay in, making sure she was alright," the captain explained.

"Okay, that's good." I sighed in relief. "I was afraid they might be attacked."

"Well, they're okay. One of the soldiers radioed me on their condition." Brenner said. "Anyways, let's all head back to base and tend to the survivors."

* * *

_Unknown to them, a small mechanical bug robot the size of a flash drive recorded everything that happened. It was now on its way back to where it came from and after flying a while longer, the bug robot returned to its master's hand._

_Taking the robot, he set it on the lab table and plugged it into the computer near him and began to watch the footage, namely Kurogasa's battles with the Mosquito Worm. "Hmmm… Interesting… I must learn more of these… ZECTers… If I could harness its power for myself…"_

* * *

There you go people, that's the second chapter of Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin! And we already got some foreshadowing at that last part! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3: Freehaven

**Fenikkusumaru:** Hey there everyone! It's your buddy Fen along with Serpentdragon, bringing you the latest chapter of Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin!

**Serpentdragon:** What's up, everybody!? Well, we certainly have an exciting new chapter of Kabuto for you, including... The inclusion of our next Rider! The question is: Which one is it? AND who will be that Rider!?

**Fen:** They're gonna have to find out by reading, man. You know that.

**SD:** I know, I know. I'm just trying to get them excited for it!

**Fen:** But anyways, let's get to it! The next chapter of Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin!

**SD:** Let's do it!

Disclaimer: Same thing.

* * *

The senior staff of the 12th Battalion all gathered in the briefing room, waiting for Brenner to give us the information for our next mission. Apparently, Recon Platoon from Bravo Company had found reports of another village of survivors not too far from our base. Brenner wanted to see if we could do something to help them.

"You found a village?" I asked.

"Surprising huh?" Koji said. "You'd think that we're the only ones here on this planet but the reports say otherwise."

Brenner gave a nod as he pointed to a red dot on the digital map on the monitor. "Yeah, see this spot on the map? That's our next destination. It's a small village."

"There's a village with actual people living there?" Will asked.

"That's right. The earthquakes and tidal waves destroyed most of the cities, but… in some places, survivors have begun banding together." Brenner said. "This village is one such area. Amidst the anarchy and chaos, they've come together to reestablish laws and government."

"Why do they have laws?" Will questioned. "The world's been destroyed. There's no one left to help them _enforce_ their laws."

"That's why they're doing it on their own. They need some way to create order." Brenner explained. "No one forced them to do it. It's just natural to try to prevent murder and other crimes. You see, Will? Even in the most unexpected places, humanity shows its inherent virtue."

Lin sighed as she said, "Permission to disagree, Captain?" She asked. "It's not proof of virtue. It's simply a survival strategy. A society that doesn't punish murderers is a society where anyone can be murdered: A society of sleepless nights where people live in fear of everyone around them. When faced with that, it only makes sense to band together and agree to prohibit murder. People are motivated by their own interests. The meteors didn't change that at all."

Koji smirked slightly as he said, "Always the idealist, aren't you, LT?"

"They certainly didn't change _you_, did they Lin?" Brenner slightly frowned. "I see you still don't factor in human decency."

I looked to Lin and asked her, "What does the captain mean by that?"

Lin waved her hand dismissively as she said, "Don't worry about it."

Brenner then turned to Will, saying, "As for you, Will, you and the girl will be safe once we get you to the village. You're civilians, so they'll welcome you with open arms."

"Yeah, let's hope they would." Rika said. "The last thing we need is people getting hostile towards us."

Will looked surprised at this as he said, "W–Wait! You guys are trying to get rid of us!?"

"No, we didn't say that." Brenner said calmly.

"I think you're kinda jumping the gun Will." I said.

"I–I'm sorry." He sunk into his chair slightly as he said, "I… I just wanted to make sure that you guys aren't trying to get rid of us. I want to continue helping you guys."

"Well, that depends on the villagers there." I said. "I mean, Brenner's doing what's best for you and her, but it's your decision overall whether you want to stay here with us or not."

"I want to stay." Will said firmly, "I mean, I was going to the Academy, I was going to be an army officer."

Koji looked at him and said, "That's fine and all, kid, but… what about the girl? Does she want to stay?" Will flinches at that, "Haven't thought of that have ya?"

"Well… no…"

"Look, all I'm asking, Will, is that you talk to the girl first and see what she wants." Koji explained.

"Okay…" Will nodded.

"Alright then, let's head out to the village. Lin, I want all personnel to clear out the base and gather all our equipment and provisions. We're moving out." Brenner ordered.

"Yes sir." Lin saluted.

* * *

**(Cue Theme D–Technolife by UVERworld)**

**(Ienai itami kanashimi de kizutsuita kimi yo)** The scenery is a barren wasteland, with a sky that blotted out the sun. The camera pans slowly to the right as Kurogasa, with his back facing the camera, looks at the barren wasteland on top of a cliff.  
**(Kesenai kako mo seoiatteikou ikiru koto o nagedasanai de)** The camera then suddenly changes to a close up of Kurogasa's face before it went around his head, the camera's view being blocked momentarily when it reached the back of his head and when the camera finally circles to the side of his face, it showed Kurogasa as Kamen Rider Kabuto, before panning out showing him in his full armor. Looking up at the sky, a ray of light suddenly burst through the clouds shining on Kabuto before the screen goes white.

**([WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH] tsunaida kimi no te o)** The title Kamen Rider Kabuto: Days of Ruin appears on the screen and just before the song enters the next phrase, the ZECTers flew, crawled, and hopped around the title from behind and jumped towards the screen before changing to the next scene.

**(Itsuka ushinatte shimau no kana)** Koji sits on the edge of his bed, sadly looking at his guitar on one side, his rifle on the other, as Gatack flew up and lands on his shoulder.  
**(Usurete yuku egao to kimi wo mamoritai kara)** Rika was in the medical wing of the base, sighing and wiping sweat off her brow as she tries to organize her medical supplies, Sasword crawling around on a table while Brenner, Lin, Isabella, and Will were discussing plans for their next move.

**(Hibiku~ boku wo yobu koe sae kare)** Kurogasa was cooking and Kabuto watched on his shoulder before Kurogasa noticed something from afar on the horizon.  
**(Toki ni sou kaze ni kakikesaretatte)** Drake and TheBee fly past him as we see what Kurogasa was looking out: a swarm of Salis Worms flanking Dr. Caulder with Admiral Greyfield, Waylon, showing up one end of the battlefield along with Tasha and Gage on another end and they sending out their troops alerting the 12th Platoon.

**(Kimi wo mitsu–ke–da–su)** Kurogasa grabs Kabuto and transforms into Kamen Rider Kabuto, before casting off his armor and charging towards Dr. Caulder.

**(Ienai itami kanashimi de kizutsuita kimi mou)** Dr. Caulder snaps his fingers and Kamen Rider Punch and Kick Hopper appeared out of nowhere and jumped towards Kabuto for an attack only for the latter to dodge before going to attack them.  
**(Waraenai nante, hito kirai nante kotoba sou iwanaide)** Koji transforms into Kamen Rider Gatack and leads the Tech Platoon with their heavy weapons attacking some of the Salis Worms as Brenner transforms into Kamen Rider TheBee and he, Lin, and Will attack the rest of the forces.  
**(Mienai mirai ni okoru koto subete ni imi ga aru kara)** Rika and David "Deadeye" Stevens transforms into Kamen Rider Sasword and Kamen Rider Drake respectively and attack some of the Salis Worms.  
**(Ima wa sono mama de ii, kitto kizukeru toki ga kuru darou [WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH])** As Kurogasa battles Punch Hopper and Kick Hopper, Caulder surprisingly joins in and transforms into Kamen Rider Caucasus, going to punch Kurogasa, only for the latter to dodge and he and Caluder stared each other down.

**(You and Me, two have spoken.)** The Hyper ZECTer appears from the distortion of time and Kurogasa grabs it to become Hyper Kabuto.

**([WHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH] Itsuka wakariaeru kara)** Kurogasa then grabs the Perfect ZECTer and he and Caucasus leap at each other, their attack causing a huge flash of light. When the light fades, we see Kurogasa, Koji, Rika, Brenner, Will, Lin, Isabella, Tasha, Gage, and Stauffenburg looking out into the sunset, the ZECTers with them as well before the song ends.

* * *

Chapter 3: Freehaven

We loaded up a few Humvees and made our way over to the village. According to the makeshift sign, the name of the place was called Freehaven. "Hmmm… appropriate name for a place people are using to escape the devastation." Rika mused.

"Yeah, no kidding," I agreed. "Though for a rundown village, it looks to be in good condition: _too_ good condition."

"Let's see why it's like that then." Brenner said as we made our way towards the village. As we did, a few people from the village started to come towards us, nervously carrying weapons.

"Hold it right there! Identify yourselves!" One of the civilians shouted.

"D–Don't try anything funny! We've got snipers watching you!" A youth added. Koji looked around and grunted in confirmation.

"He's right, they got snipers." Koji gritted.

"Easy now," Brenner replied. "I'm Captain Brenner, commanding officer of the 12th Battalion of the Rubinelle Army."

"What if you're with those raiders? What if you're here to attack us?" The civilian asked.

"What? They think we're raiders?" I asked confused.

"Yeah, I bet that's it! You came back to kill us all, didn't you?" The youth shouted.

"Actually, quite the opposite, we're here to see if we can help you." Koji stated.

Brenner then added, "Listen, we don't want trouble. Your mayor owes me his life. Tell him my name, and I'm sure he'll agree to see us."

Will then stepped forward saying, "C'mon guys! Help us out, will you?"

The civilian looked surprised seeing him, "Hey… You're too young to be one of them raiders. Maybe you're ok _after_ all. Wait here! I'll go get the mayor." He said before running off.

"About time…" Brenner sighed.

"Nice job Will." I grinned, patting his shoulder.

"Thanks," Will said, sheepishly, scratching his cheek.

After he said that, we all took a seat on some of the benches made out of debris as we waited for the civilians to return with the mayor.

"Hmm…?" Dr. Stauffenburg said looking at some sort of hand held PDA he was carrying with him.

"What's wrong Doctor?" I asked.

"I'm picking up an interesting signal." Stauffenburg replied, getting up and walking a bit to try and get a signal. "I think it's one of the ZECTers!"

We all looked at him in surprise. "Are you sure?" Brenner asked.

"Oh yes, I'm positive! It's one of the ZECTers alright!" Dr. Stauffenburg cheered. "The only question is: Which one?"

Kabuto then popped out of my bag and said excitedly, "One of the other ZECTers is here!? Oh boy! It's one of my pals!"

"Yeah, but we don't know which one." I reminded.

Kabuto didn't seem deflated at all. "That's okay! The point is one of them is here! I just gotta find him!"

"I'll be the one doing the finding." Dr. Stauffenburg huffed. "You stay with Kurogasa. He might need you at a moment's notice."

Kabuto nodded before landing on my shoulder as he said, "Okay… Fair enough. I guess you're right, Doc."

"Hey, we have the mayor here!" The civilian shouted to us.

We all got up as the mayor approached us, smiling. "It's good to see you, Mr. Mayor," Brenner said. The mayor was a man in his late forties, slightly pudgy, with gray hair in a receding hairline, with a red button–up shirt, and gray pants. However, he was not happy to see Brenner.

"So it really _is_ you. Your weapons and uniforms have my people scared half to death." The Mayor frowned. "What do you want, Brenner? We're trying to live in peace. We don't need your kind here."

"So it seems." Brenner narrowed as his smile turned into a frown. "Don't worry, we'll move out as soon as we finish what we came here for. We rescued some civilians a few clicks back, including an injured girl. I want you to take them."

The Mayor grunted at this. "I hope you're not marching in here and giving us orders. I truly don't. Things aren't that simple, friend. My village is barely getting by as is."

"No one's giving orders." Brenner retorted. "I'm asking for your help. They're just a couple of kids. They're not going to make it out there alone."

"And that's not _our_ fault!" The Mayor snapped. "We didn't make this world, but we have to live in it. That's reality."

Koji looked at the mayor in disbelief as he said, "Seriously? These people need help! You see the state the world is in and you're really gonna shove them away?"

"And as for reality, the reality is that there's nothing out there but cockroaches and corpses." Brenner growled. "These people survived. They're alive, and it's up to us to keep them that way."

"Maybe that was true before, but now? I don't think so." The Mayor said. "Millions and millions of people are dead. I don't think a couple more is such a tragedy. The more people we have living here, the more mouths we have to feed. We can't afford it."

"So you think they're not worth saving?!" I shouted.

Koji scoffed. "Typical… Darwin would be so proud, seeing survival of the fittest at work."

"That's not what I'm saying!" The Mayor shouted. "We don't want to see anyone die! But your captain here doesn't know what he's asking. We simply don't have the means to take them in. I'm sorry."

"I see." Brenner sighed, rubbing his temple.

The mayor then looked at us sadly as he said, "You're soldiers. You can use your weapons to take what you need. All we want is to be left in peace. Now do us a favor, and take your troubles elsewhere."

Rika just sighed as she rubbed her eyes and said, "Great… so much for that."

"You heard the mayor! Hit the road! We don't need warmongers in our lives! You read me?" The civilian shouted, raising his weapon at us.

Brenner raised his hands in a placating manner as he replied, "I read you." Then, turning to Will, he said, "Sorry, Will, but it looks like you're going to be traveling with us until we find another village."

"Don't worry, Captain." Will said. "That's fine with–"

"Head for cover, those raiders are back! Where's the mayor?!" A citizen shouted, interrupting Will.

Uh oh… Looking to Brenner, I said, "Think it's the Beast, Captain?"

"I sure hope not."

"Regardless, I think we should go deal with these guys, Captain." Koji said.

"You're right." Brenner nodded before turning to me, "Kurogasa, suit up. We're gonna be protecting these villagers."

"You got it, Captain!" I then looked to Kabuto who flew off my shoulder as I said, "Let's go, aibou!"

"You got it aibou!" Kabuto said before flying around me before I caught him in my hand.

"Let's do this!" I said before shouting, "Henshin!" and slid him onto the buckle.

**HENSHIN!**

The red hexagonal patterns began covering my body, putting me into my Masked Form armor. As I finished transforming, the rest of the soldiers began getting ready for combat. "Lin, I need our Humvees and tanks setting up a perimeter around the village." Brenner added. "Koji, you and your platoon do what you do best."

"You got it, Captain," Koji said as he got Tech Platoon together and, had them; head out to prepare for the enemy attack.

"Doc, you and Dr. Ryusaki find that ZECTer. We can't have it fall to the enemy's hand."

"You got it." Dr. Stauffenburg replied. Looking to Rika, he said, "I got a lock on the signal, off in that direction."

"Lead the way." Rika nodded.

* * *

Leading the charge towards the town, the Beast grinned evilly when he saw what was going on through his binoculars. "Perfect… Look at this, roaches! Soldier boy's visiting our village! Nothing, like a nice day of raiding, murder, and revenge, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

Brenner looked in the direction of the approaching force and sighed, "Looks like you were right, Sergeant Shinamori. It's the Beast's boys, alright."

"I thought so." Koji sighed too.

Grunting, Brenner said, "Alright, well let's give him all we got! Engage!"

"Ha, ha, it looks like I can get another chance at killing the guy that almost shot my head! Alright roaches, let 'em have it!" The Beast roared.

The mayor came rushing over to Brenner, Koji, Lin, and I and shouted, frightened, "Dear mother of mercy! Look at those savages! You've got to help us, Brenner! They've destroyed every village in the region, and now they've come for us!"

Koji scoffed. "Oh, of course… You rebuff our request for help yet as soon as you need us, you come crying."

"They have tanks! We have nothing but rocks and sticks! Please you have to help us!"

"Relax, we'll help you," Koji replied shortly.

"Easy, Staff Sergeant," Brenner replied. Looking to the mayor, he then said, "Leave them to us, Mr. Mayor. You get your people out of here. Start evacuating!"

"Right," The Mayor said, "In regards to payment…"

"There's no time for that now! Get moving!" Brenner urged.

As the civilians started to evacuate, Lin got our attention as she said, "Captain, the enemy has us at a disadvantage. They outnumber us 3:1."

"How bad are we talking here?" Brenner asked.

"Four tanks and two full infantry platoons, plus two Humvees loaded with heavy machine guns." Lin replied after getting a second look at the enemy through her binoculars.

"Great…" Brenner gritted.

"And there's no doubt The Beast is gonna try to go for your head Koji." I added.

"I'm used to it by now. It's a good thing he has crappy aim." Koji smirked. "Well, aibou, what do you say we go take Tech Platoon to even the odds?"

"You just read my mind." I smirked behind my mask. I then loaded the Kabuto Extender out of the back of one of the Humvees as Koji and his men loaded into another one. After that, I revved the engine and said "Okay guys, try and keep up!" before I sped off.

Koji hit the gas of the Humvee and followed after me as the rest of the battalion opened fire on the Beast's men.

* * *

_"Ohhhhhhh, where is that ZECTer?" Stauffenburg said getting a bit impatient, as he and Rika kept walking around._

_Rika sighed as she paused for a moment to catch her breath. "If it's moving, then maybe our best bet is to wait for it to start moving in our direction and go to catch it, rather than chasing it." She then heard the sounds of battle starting in the distance. "Oh no…"_

_"Yes, I hear it too. Another battle…" Stauffenburg sighed wearily. "We might as well get going before this place becomes a battlefield."_

_Just as they prepared to start walking, Rika paused. "Doc… do you hear that?"_

_*BZZZZ!*_

_"Yes, I do, but… where is it coming from?" Stauffenburg wondered._

_Closing her eyes, Rika listened to the buzzing a little more. "It's from… over there, on our right!" The two turned to the right and soon enough, they spotted a mechanical wasp with yellow wings that has black eyes, a slender silver body, and is smaller than Kabuto._

_"Doo–dee–doo–dee–doo, man, it's so cool getting to explore the world, now that I'm finally away from that stuffy scientist. Shame I only get to see it after it has been devastated." the wasp themed ZECTer said as it flew around._

_"AHA! I found you!" Stauffenburg shouted, pointing at it._

_"Uh–oh," The ZECTer said as it turned to them. "Guess Hide and Seek is over…"_

_"You are in _big_ trouble TheBee!" Stauffenburg shouted, stomping over it. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you and the other ZECTers have caused me?!"_

_TheBee flew over to Stauffenburg and said, "Do you have any idea how boring it was for us, cooped up in your lab? Or how maybe we didn't like the ZECT agents you picked to partner up with us?"_

_"You ZECTers were perfectly compatible with those agents!"_

_"So _you_ think," TheBee accused. "Just because biologically we matched, there's more to it than that to see if we and a human would make good partners."_

_"Oh is that what you think?!"_

_"Yeah, that's what I think!"_

_"Hai, hai, that's enough you two!" Rika said getting in between the two and pushing them back._

_TheBee looked to Rika and flew over to her, examining her. "Hi there, I'm TheBee! What's your name?"_

_"I'm Rika. It's nice to meet you!" Rika smiled._

_"It's nice to meet you, Rika!" TheBee replied happily. "Hmmm…" TheBee flew back from Rika, suddenly and looked in the direction of the battle in the distance. "I think I'm detecting a potential partner."_

_"Huh? You do?" Rika blinked._

_"Mhmm," TheBee nodded. "I can sense them, and… oh no!"_

_"What's wrong?" Stauffenburg asked._

_"I'm detecting a Worm near there, too!"_

_"There's a Worm?!" Rika gasped._

_"Yep, I better get to it!" TheBee said before flying off to that direction._

_"Wait!" Stauffenburg shouted but it was no use. "Good grief, if that potential partner is there, they're gonna need the Rider Brace in order for them to use TheBee!"_

_"Then let's get over there!" Rika shouted as she and Stauffenburg ran after TheBee._

* * *

_Hidden amongst the Beast's men was one soldier who seemed to be like the others, except for the evil grin on his face as he slipped away from the front line. He had short cut red hair, blue-green eyes, tanned skin, several facial scars, a tan tank top, olive green combat pants, and tan desert boots. He licked his lips as he saw the village behind the Rubinelle forces. "Plenty of potential hosts for the rest of my species…"_

_And that was when the person morphed into a Salis Worm and started molting into its mature form._

_When it completed its metamorphosis, the Worm was now a brown skinned monstrosity with black and gray markings all over its body. It had a long thorax extending from above its waist on the back with eight long, hairy arachnid legs coming from them as well. Instead of fingers, it had three pointy claws. Its head was very much like a tarantula, possessing eight glowing red eyes with long, hair jewels with black fangs extending from them. This was the Tarantula Worm._

_After that, a ghost image stuck out of its head revealing his human form, "Now… it's time for me to feast." He said before the ghost image disappeared and the Tarantula Worm sped off in a blur._

* * *

Koji and I were making good pace towards the Beast's tanks. While I was in Masked Form, I was able to provide a good barrier for Tech Platoon, the majority of the bullets from his men were deflecting off my armor, even though they were pushing me back a bit as I fired at them with my Kunai Ax Gun. "Koji now would be a good time for you and your men to make their move!"

"Yeah, I gotcha," Koji said. "Alright men, move out! Kurogasa's got you covered! Go! Go! Go!"

Koji and Sgt. Rusk each led half of Tech Platoon off towards the tanks, shooting at the Beast's men while they made their way forward. _'Hopefully…'_ Koji thought to himself as he made his way over, _'The Beast is almost out of his supply of tanks.'_

However, as I continued to fire lasers at the enemies, Kabuto piped up with, "Aibou, I'm detecting a Worm in the area, one stronger than the last two!"

"What? Are you sure?" I gasped as I stopped. "Where is it headed?"

"It… Oh no," Kabuto said worriedly. "It's already here!"

"WHAT?" I gawked.

"Aibou, abenai," Kabuto shouted.

I looked up just in time to see the Worm pile drive itself into me, sending me crashing into one of the two other Rubinelle Humvees and… Man, were these Worms getting uglier with each one!?

This Worm is brown skinned with black and gray markings all over its body. It had a long thorax extending from above its waist on the back with eight long, hairy arachnid legs coming from them. Instead of fingers, it had three pointy claws. Its head was tarantula like, possessing eight glowing red eyes with long, hair jewels with black fangs extending from them. This is the Tarantula Worm and its ugly!

"Ready to, Cast Off aibou?" Kabuto asked as I slowly got to my feet, seeing the Worm begin to attack both the Beast _and_ the Rubinelle forces.

"You know it." I said before I flipped Kabuto's horn slightly. Electricity and steam went off as the heavy parts of my armor slightly spread out as I heard the charging sound. I then touched the horn and shouted, "Cast Off!" before flipping Kabuto's horn completely.

**CAST OFF!**

The heavy parts of my armor then shot out, with various parts hitting the Beast's soldiers before the horn came up and locked into place.

**CHANGE: BEETLE!**

"Ergh, What the–" The Beast shouted as he examined both the Worm and Rubinelle army. "Ugh… Shoot them both!" But as he shouted that, he heard the sound of explosions behind him, looking to see Tech Platoon coming charging out of the flames of his now blown up tanks and begin attacking his men from behind, "You again?!"

"We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!" Koji yelled, with a smug grin.

The Beast growled as he took a machine gun and began firing at Koji and his men. "You roaches crush the bug and kill the rest of the Rubinelle punks! This one is mine!"

"Return fire!" Koji shouted back. "Take out his men!"

Meanwhile, in the middle of all the cross fire, I was in battle with the Tarantula Worm, using my Kunai Ax Gun in Ax Mode to try and attack it, but unfortunately, as Kabuto said, this Worm was much stronger than expected.

**CLOCK UP!**

My whole world slowed down while the Tarantula Worm and I were at normal speed even though we're not. I charged at the Worm, but before I could hit it, it spat these toxic barbs at me that numbed my leg, allowing it to slash across my chest.

A ghost image of his human form stuck out as it said mockingly, while approaching me, _"Heh, heh, heh… Can't handle my sting, can you, Kabuto?"_

"Darn it. This just _had_ to happen at the worst possible time!" I clenched in pain. Dang, this poison is really getting to me!

_"Now that you're out of commission for a while, I can go deal with Phase II of my plan."_ And then, much to my surprise, he started burrowing into the ground and disappeared.

**CLOCK OVER!**

"Kabuto… Did you detect the Worm?" I asked as I returned to normal time.

"I can't detect him now! He's gone!" Kabuto said before detaching from my belt, returning to civilian form.

I looked around to double check and… much to my surprise, he _was_ gone… Though unfortunately, the pain in my leg was not. "Ugh… I really hope this is only temporary."

* * *

_As the battle continued on between the 12th Battalion and the Beast's raiders, the Beast and Koji were locked in a one-on-one fight, his men keeping any other soldiers from coming to Koji's aid. The two continued to fire at another, popping up from cover behind the debris of the Beast's tanks._

_"I'm finally gonna kill you, roach! It's time to make you pay for trying to take my head off!"_

_"Che, you _always_ say that." Koji scoffed. "And you failed every time!" Just then, Koji fired off a burst from his M–16 that hit the Beast right in the shoulder and arm with three bullets. "I, on the other hand, actually know how to aim!"_

_"GRAAAAAH," The Beast roared in pain. "YOU BASTARD, LOOK WHAT YOU DID!"_

_"Heh… I know. I'm rather proud of myself." Koji smirked._

_"THAT'S IT!" The Beast shouted before he pulled from out of nowhere… 2 RPG–7's that were twice the size of a standard one! "YOU'RE DEAD!"_

_Koji suddenly went wide–eyed, "Me and my big mouth." Immediately, he broke cover and ran towards the Rubinelle forces._

_The Beast roared, "DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" before launching the two RPG's. Koji, went for a swan-dive into a huge pit, ironically enough, the one the Tarantula Worm came out of, just in time to avoid being blown to bits. Instead, the Beast wound up blowing up several of his own men, "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARGH!" The Beast's men wailed in pain._

_As the smoke cleared, Koji slowly poked his head out of the hole and breathed a sigh of relief. "Man that was too close."_

_This only made the Beast even angrier, seeing the condition his men were left in due to his carelessness._

_"Boss, we gotta pull back!" One of his men said. "The Rubinelle's are starting to surround us!"_

_"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr…!" The Beast growled. "Pull back roaches! We're heading back to base!"_

_At their boss's command, the soldiers began to go into full retreat._

_"Phew… That's a relief," Koji said as he climbed out of the hole, walking back to his side's forces as they celebrated their victory._

* * *

"Gaaaaaaaah, darn you stupid poison!" I writhed in pain as I kept moving around in my makeshift bed holding my leg tight. I'm in sick bay and this poison's really getting annoying!

"Just hang in there, buddy," Koji said, sitting by my side, "Rika should be back soon. Good news is the nurse said the poison is starting to pass through your body. Hopefully, though, Rika can filter it all out quickly."

"Well she better get back quick…!" I winced, closing one eye while clenching my teeth tight.

"I'm here!" Rika shouted as she rushed inside. "Guys, you're not gonna believe this! Stauffenburg and I found the ZECTer!"

"Kabuto," Shouted a wasp–looking ZECTer as he flew in to the room and went over to Kabuto.

"TheBee, is that you?!" Kabuto asked surprised and delighted.

"Yeah, it's me!" TheBee replied, happily, as he flew around. "It's good to see you, buddy! But you better watch out… that stuff shirt Stauffenburg is here somewhere."

"Yeah, I know." Kabuto said before flying over to me. "Anyways, I want ya to meet my partner: Kurogasa!"

"Oooo, you found a partner already? Cool!" Not realizing the problem with my leg, TheBee landed on my bad leg and said, "Hey there, Kurogasa! The name's TheBee, how ya doin'!?"

"I want this poison out of me~." I groaned in pain.

TheBee asked confused, "Poison?"

"Oh no, TheBee, get off his leg!" Rika shouted as she rushed over, filling a hypodermic needle with some sort of fluid I assumed was something to counteract the poison.

"What happened to _him_?" TheBee asked Kabuto.

"Oh, yeah… This Worm we were fighting hit him with these poison barbs. They originally numbed his leg, but then it started to get enflamed and went into temporary paralysis." Kabuto explained.

"Yeouch…" TheBee winced.

Rika then put some rubbing alcohol on my leg and said, "Okay, Kurogasa, this'll sting, but it'll counteract the poison."

"Just get the poison out of me…" I sighed in pain.

"You don't have to be such a big baby about it." Rika deadpanned before sticking the needle in my leg.

I winced as I felt the injection, biting my lower lip to keep myself from groaning out loud.

"Ouch… are you alright, bro?" Koji asked with a grunt of sympathy pain.

After Rika injected the antidote, I winced in pain as he got the needle out of me. "I'll live… somehow…"

Rika rolled her eyes and said, "You're a wimp…"

TheBee then flew over to the middle of the room and said, "Alright, well, I need to find my partner. I know he's here somewhere."

"You haven't found a partner yet?" Kabuto asked.

"Yes and no." TheBee said, setting down on a table of medical supplies. "I tracked my partner to this base. I just don't know for sure who it is."

"There you guys are." Lin's voice said as we all turned to see her and Brenner entering the sick bay tent.

"How you feeling, Kid?" Brenner asked me as he took a seat.

"I'm okay now. Rika just injected an antidote on my leg." I sighed as I lied down on my bed. "Now my leg feels numb."

"Hopefully you'll be back on your feet, soon." Lin said, "Since that Worm is still out there."

Just then, TheBee flew over to Brenner and started observing him closely. "Hmm…?" Brenner said. "Hey, aren't you–"

"My name's TheBee!" The ZECTer replied as he landed on Brenner's shoulder. "What's your name?"

"I'm… Captain Brenner, commander of the 12th Battalion of the Rubinelle Army." Brenner blinked.

TheBee then flew very close to Brenner's head, getting close up in his face and then nodded. "Yep, it's you! You're the one I've been looking for! So hello… aibou,"

Brenner stared at TheBee blankly before saying, "Huh?"

Stauffenburg then came rushing into sick bay and said, panting, "There you… are, TheBee… hou can't… keep running off… like that… phew!"

TheBee turned around and groaned, "Aw mou~ leave me alone already!" He flew around Brenner's head as he said, "Besides, I've found my new partner!"

"What?" Stauffenburg gasped. "You mean–"

"Can someone tell me what's going on here?" Brenner asked.

"You're gonna be a Kamen Rider like me Captain." I said.

Everyone looked to Brenner and me in disbelief as the captain said, "I–I'm gonna be… a Kamen Rider?"

"Tha~t's right Cappy! Kamen Rider TheBee to be exact!" TheBee chirped. "Ha, ha, get it?!" He laughed at his joke making all of us sweat drop.

Kabuto shook his body from side to side indicating that he was shaking his head before whispering to Koji, Rika, and I, "Sorry… TheBee tells not so great jokes. You get used to it after a while."

TheBee looked over to Kabuto and asked, "You say something, buddy?"

"Nope, didn't say anything!" Kabuto said quickly.

Real smooth Kabuto, re~al smooth…

* * *

_That night, as the people of Freehaven went about their business, a familiar soldier was lurking the streets. It was the one from the Beast's forces who was actually the Tarantula Worm. "Heh, heh… Perfect. That human army is gone… which means, that my brethren now can acquire their hosts." He then threw a glow stick down a hole he climbed out of. A few seconds later, a swarm of Salis Worms came crawling out._

_"It's time to feast my brethren!" The soldier said before changing form into the Tarantula Worm._

_The Salis Worms all began to screech as they then ran about, attacking the homes of people, causing the entire town to awaken in fright, as they sought to acquire hosts._

* * *

"…Look, TheBee," Brenner said, hesitantly, "I don't know if I can be your partner. I mean, I have a whole battalion of men and women to lead."

"That's just it!" TheBee perked. "The kind of partner I'm looking for is someone who's good at leading people! You can still do that, you're just gonna be in a super soldier bug armor!"

Brenner looked really unsure of himself than I had ever seen him since joining up with the 12th Battalion. "I, um–"

However, suddenly, a private with a radio came rushing in. "Captain!" After stopping to salute, he said, "Sir, Freehaven is under attack! The Worm from before is attacking the village with several Salis Worms!"

"What?" Brenner asked shocked.

"Uh–oh, that's not good!" TheBee cringed.

"And Kurogasa is still out of commission for the time being." Brenner said to himself, thinking of what he should do next.

Koji sighed for a moment before saying, "Captain, permission to speak freely?"

"Granted,"

"Sir… I think you should join up with TheBee," Koji stated. "You're our commanding officer and we look to you for leadership and guidance, but you've trained us all well enough that we can handle things. And I know you'd make just as good a Kamen Rider as Kurogasa."

"Are you sure?" Brenner asked.

"I'm positive." Koji nodded firmly. "Rika will take care of Kurogasa while we take out those Worms."

Lin nodded in agreement. "I can handle leading the Wolves in battle, sir, as we clear out those Salis Worms so you can focus on the Tarantula Worm."

Brenner thought about this for a while longer until I said, "You can do it Captain. We believe in ya."

Kabuto then piped in with, "Yeah! You can do it, Cap! You and TheBee will be a great team!"

Brenner looked a bit stunned at us as his supporters for a while before chuckling saying, "Alright, you win. Let's exterminate those Worms!"

"Yippee!" TheBee shouted happily as he flew around Brenner's head three times. "We'll be _great_ together, aibou!"

"Then you're gonna need this." Stauffenburg said as he took a device similar to a wristwatch out of his pocket.

"What is it?" Brenner asked as Stauffenburg threw the said device to him and Brenner caught it.

"It's the Rider Brace. You're gonna need that in order to transform." Stauffenburg said. "Just put it on your wrist and then when TheBee latches on, you'll transform."

Brenner nodded as he latched the device onto his left wrist. "Okay then." Looking to Lin and Koji, he then said, "Alright, Lieutenant, Staff Sergeant, let's move out!"

"Yes sir!" They nodded.

* * *

_Koji and Lin had the Wolves load up the Humvees as quick as they could and rushed back to Freehaven. While they lost no tanks in their battle with the Beast, they did, unfortunately, take some damage that would keep them out of commission in the battle to come. Koji drove the lead Humvee with Lin and Brenner. When they arrived at Freehaven, they found the citizens were rounded up by Salis Worms and the Tarantula Worm whom was busy trying to decide which humans would become hosts for the Salis Worms._

"Hmmm… which of you humans would make the best hosts for my brethren…?"_ The Tarantula Worm mocked menacingly, his human face appearing beside him as he paced back and forth in front of the terrified humans._

_"Let's get the jump on them Captain!" Koji urged._

_"Right," Brenner shouted as Koji brought the Humvee to a stop, signaling the rest of them to stop as the soldiers began hopping out of the Humvees. Brenner stepped to the front of his men and pointed at the Tarantula Worm. "I'm only going to give you one chance, ugly: Surrender and withdraw from Freehaven, or my men and I will destroy you and your little friends."_

"Huh?"_ The Tarantula Worm said, turning to him. _"Who are you?"

_The name's Brenner, Captain Alex Brenner, commanding officer of the 12th Rubinelle Infantry Battalion. And these are my Wolves," Brenner replied with a smirk, nodding his head over his shoulder. However, he then jabbed his thumb at himself. "But you can just call me your worst nightmare. Are you ready, TheBee!?"_

_"I'm ready!" TheBee said before flying around his hand and attached to the Rider Brace slanted. _

_Showing the brace, Brenner slanted TheBee so that he was lined with the brace and shouted, "Henshin!"_

**HENSHIN!**

_Yellow hexagons of energy came out from the Rider Brace and enveloped him until he completely donned in his armor._

_It follows the black bodysuit custom. The torso armor is just as blocky like Kabuto's, but the center is decorated with several black hexagons much like a honeycomb. His shoulder armor is silver and sticks outward over his shoulders like insect wings, but the rest of his shoulder is yellow and rounded with vents on the sides. Both shoulders sport black disks, the left one decorated with a bee symbol. His arms are covered with more segmented steel, looking more like a hindrance than a held. Mounted on his left wrist his ZECTer, looking like a bee ready to fly up and sting someone. His helmet is like the others, silver steel but his faceplate is dominated by a black visor shaped like several hexagons put together with a pair of horns or antennae rising up from the top._

_The Tarantula Worm gasped in disbelief. _"Impossible! There're _two_ of them now!"

_"You got that right!" Koji smirked._

_"Wolves, open fire on those Worms," Brenner ordered._

_Immediately, the soldiers began firing on the Salis Worms as they turned their attention towards the army as the Tarantula Worm and Brenner, or now, Kamen Rider TheBee, charged towards each other. The Tarantula Worm gave a slash with the claws on its hand, but Brenner blocked them with his left arm and then punched the Worm square in the chest, knocking it backwards. "Whoa, the power I'm feeling is incredible!"_

_The Worm growled over the sound of gunfire and the screeching of the Salis Worms. _"Peh, not bad for a start, but you'll soon go down, just like the other one!" _And digging incredibly fast, he suddenly had dug underground._

_"Not good…" Brenner grimaced. As he kept looking around the ground, trying to see if he could see where Tarantula was going to come up, he asked TheBee, "I don't suppose I have a special weapon like Kurogasa does as Kabuto?"_

_"Unfortunately, no…" TheBee said a bit sad._

_"Of course," Brenner sighed as he continued to look around, until– "GAHHHH!"_

_The Worm attacked from right below him, sending him flying up into the air._

_A moment later, he fell back on the ground. "Are you okay?" TheBee asked worriedly._

_"Ugh… Yeah… just gaining a new understanding for how a soccer ball feels after being kicked around." Brenner replied._

_"Looks like you're gonna have to cast off the armor."_

_"How do I do that?" Brenner asked as he defended himself from the Tarantula Worm's assault as it viciously pummeled at the new Rider._

_"Flip my wings over me so that I see them facing me and then turn me around while shouting Cast Off!"_

_"Um, alright," Brenner said as he finally managed to knee the Worm, forcing it back as he finally got enough room and time to do as TheBee told him. Flipping the wings over, the gears on Brenner's outer armor began turning, loosening up the pieces. "Cast Off!" He then shouted as he turned TheBee around._

**CAST OFF!**

_The pieces then shot off, hitting the Salis Worms in numerous explosions of green flames. Meanwhile, Koji and Lin looked to see Brenner in his Rider Form._

**CHANGE: WASP!**

* * *

**BGM: Full Force by Ricky feat. RIDER CHIPS**

_In Rider form, TheBee was smaller, having discarded the bulky outer armor. The torso armor looked much like a bee's abdomen and the shoulder plates looked like white insect wings. His arms and legs sported thin armor, but nowhere near the grade of protection the previous suit hand. On his left wrist, his ZECTer had extended its stinger, looking like a wrist–mounted harpoon. His helmet was striped yellow and black, the yellow pieces resembling the face of a hornet or wasp with a large pair of black eyes. From the forehead rose, a pair of antennae and in the center of the forehead was three red stones in a triangle position._

_"Heh heh… Not bad," Brenner thought as he looked himself over once or twice, causing the Tarantula Worm to sneer._

_"Nice new threads, Captain!" Koji shouted before firing again at a Salis Worm he and three other soldiers were battling._

"Grrrr…"_ The Tarantula Worm growled, his ghost image of his human form appearing, _"It'll take more just than just looks to beat me!"_ When his human image disappeared, he went into Clock Up mode._

_"Dang…" Brenner grunted as he watched the Worm suddenly accelerate. "TheBee, how do I do the Clock Up thing?"_

_"There should be a Clock Up pad on the sides of your belt!"_

_Brenner looked down and saw the pad and quickly hit it._

**CLOCK UP!**

_The rest of the world slowed down as Brenner accelerated to faster–than–light speed. And just in time for him, because he then had just enough time to dodge the attack from the Tarantula Worm who flew over Brenner as he dropped to the ground._

_"Nice job, now let's beat him!" TheBee cheered._

_"Right," Brenner shouted as he charged towards the Worm._

"Not this time, human!"_ Tarantula Worm shouted as he spat the same poisonous barbs at Brenner that he had Kurogasa._

_"That's my line." Brenner said before he easily dodged the barbs._

_"Haha, nice job, buddy!" TheBee shouted excitedly as Brenner charged towards the Worm as he continued to spit the barbs at him._

_The Tarantula yelled, _"Bakana, Bakana, Bakana, how can you do this?!"

_"That's easy." Brenner smirked behind his mask. "I'm too fast for you." When he closed in, Brenner then stabbed the stinger of TheBee into the Worm, making sparks fly off its chest as it went flying backwards._

**CLOCK OVER!**

_The whole world returned to normal and the Tarantula Worm was lying on the ground. "Alright, it's time for the finisher!" TheBee said._

_"I agree," Brenner said with a nod. Lifting his left arm slightly to speak directly to his ZECTer, he said, "Alright, TheBee, let's set up for that Rider Kick technique Kurogasa uses."_

_"Sorry, but mine's different." TheBee said._

_"Oh?" Brenner replied a little surprised. "What do we do, then?"_

_"Remember when you punched him with my stinger poking him?" TheBee asked which Brenner nodded at. "That's the finishing move. We just need to power it up more. There's a button just above my abdomen. Press it to perform Rider Sting."_

_"Alright, you got it." Brenner said, before finding the said button and Brenner said before pressing it, "Rider Sting!"_

**RIDER STING!**

_Green electricity began flowing up Brenner's left arm as he pulled it back for a punch. "It's time to squash this bug! AIIIl–YAHHHH," Brenner shouted as he ran towards the Worm._

"No! No! NOOOO,"_ The Tarantula Worm shouted as he tried to escape by digging, but it was too late._

_Brenner dived down the hole the Worm dug and stabbed TheBee's stinger into him, driving him underground before popping up from underneath with the Tarantula Worm on his stinger._

_And then…_

_*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!*_

_The Worm exploded in green flames as Brenner turned away, retracting TheBee's stinger. "And that's that…"_

**End BGM**

* * *

_"Whoa…" Koji said in awe._

_Lin, too, stopped fighting, leaving the last two or three Salis Worms to be destroyed by the rest of their soldiers. "Incredible… The captain really was meant to be partnered with that ZECTer…"_

_"Yeah, no kidding," Koji said before Brenner turned TheBee around and flipped his wings back. TheBee then detached from the brace and the armor glowed and broke into energy hexagons, being absorbed into the bracer._

_Both Lin and Koji saluted Brenner, Brenner returning the salutes. "Nice work out there, Boss. It looks like you really were born to be one of these Kamen Riders." Koji said._

_"Thanks, Staff Sergeant." Brenner said._

_"So whaddya think?" TheBee asked, flying in front of Brenner's face. "Is being a Kamen Rider awesome or awesome?"_

_Brenner chuckled as he replied, "Definitely the latter, my little friend."_

_"Yippee!" TheBee cheered, flying around Brenner's head._

* * *

"Alright, Kurogasa, how does the leg feel now?" Rika asked as she came to check on me again.

"It feels better." I said. "I'm starting to get feeling back in my leg."

She smiled at me as she checked a few things off on her clipboard. "Good."

Just then, Koji, Lin, and Brenner came back into the room. "Guess who is back with a victory under their belt!?"

"Oh you're back!" Rika noticed.

"Yep," TheBee shouted happily as he flew off Brenner's head and over to Rika. "And Alex and I kicked that Worm's butt!"

"You did?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, you should've seen it man!" Koji said excited. "It was so far outta sight!"

I looked to Koji in surprise as Lin and Brenner looked to him confused. "Koji… did you just speak… disco?"

"Huh?" Koji blinked before he realized what he said, "Oh uh…" he said embarrassed, laughing nervously while rubbing the back of his neck.

Lin and Brenner looked to one another before going back to Koji, "Disco?" Lin asked.

"Like, the music from the 1970's?" Brenner then added for clarification.

"Uh–huh," I nodded. "He was quite the ladies' man back when the world was all green and full of life.

"And he was always dressed in that style back then: bellbottoms, platform shoes, newsboy caps or fedora and this gold male sign medallion," Rika said with a smirk. "He's always dancing up to the girls, showing off his moves for them."

"O–Oi, you two…" Koji sweat dropped.

"Is that right?" Brenner smirked.

"Oh, I'm gonna have a field day making jokes about you." Lin smirked too.

"Aw man, not you guys too!" Koji whined before all of us laughed.

* * *

**Fenikkusumaru:** There you have it guys! Our newest Kamen Rider is none other than Captain Brenner as Kamen Rider TheBee!

**Serpentdragon:** And he has a first name now! XD

**Fen:** Yep. Alexander Brenner.

**SD:** Yeah, we realized they never gave him a first name in the game, so we made one up!

**Fen: **Are we gonna give names for the other cannon characters too?

**SD:** It would make sense. Lin lacks a first name and Will has no last name.

**Fen:** True, true. Well, we'll think of something for them eventually.

**SD:** Right. Anyway, that covers it for this chapter of Kabuto, but I wanna take a moment to let you guys know that on my page, there are three other Kamen Rider stories Fen and I working on: "Kamen Rider W: Ace Attorney/Detective," a crossover of W and Phoenix Wright, as well as two original stories: "Kamen Rider Funk & Soul" and "Kamen Rider Access."

**Fen:** Yeah, go ahead and read them if you get the chance.

**SD:** Well, that about covers it. So, until next time, guys!

**Fen:** Review, and have a good day!


End file.
